10/29/2021.  Issue #5,434.
  Wishing you and yours a happy, safe and RV-filled weekend.
   Need a Contract SIC?
 

Proud dad/daughter moment ...chopperchops

Teaching Genevieve the joys of aircraft wiring
She ended up wiring the VHF control head by herself, not a bad first go at it!
Genevieve helped me rivet on the turtledeck a while back (she picked up riveting really quickly as well).
First riveting, now wiring, maybe she can finish the plane off for me
I value every second of these moments.

Proud Dad ...crabandy

I snagged Lil' Dude after school and we headed to the airport to check off some items on the Condition Inspection Checklist (Thx Walt!).
I'd already Torqued the prop bolts but he observantly watched me safety wire the prop bolts. I gave him a few pointers on starting screws on the spinner and it was on in no time.

We completed the entire empennage inspection tonight as well, lights and mirrors/wrenches checking bolt torque/rags for cleaning and lubing/etc.

Lil' Dude started most all the screws on the fairings and inspection plates without cross threading a single one. It's one of the important basics of mechanics some people will never grasp, it's alignment-dexterity-feel-understanding that's so simple yet complex. I want to build another airplane with him!

Finally, the plane I wanted all along!...catmandu

Back before we started college funds, M'lady and I thought, "Yeah, P-51! If things go as we plan, we just might have to do one of those down the road." Well, we probably should have invested in a Mustang rather than college funds, as we could endow an entire college with the sale proceeds these days. Oh well.

Some time later, I discovered Van's airplanes. I fell in love with the -8, and felt it was a poor man's P-51. I thought about building one, but after two years of 'planning' I realized I needed to be a buyer. So I went about looking for the right plane, and engaged the help of our own @smokyray. Turns out he found a -6a that fit 90% of my RV desires, and convinced me to buy it. That plane has been very good to us over the years, giving us lots of flying memories, and I have had great fun maintaining and upgrading it as well, scratching that build itch I had.

A while back a casual post here on VAF in an unrelated thread led me to start a conversation offline. One thing led to another, and we now own a Super-8! We now have too many airplanes and not enough hangar:  -->

Greg Hughes from Van's Talks with Flying Magazine

Vans Aircraft VP/COO Greg Hughes sits down with Thom Patterson and updates us on the next-gen aircraft for this iconic kit aircraft manufacturer. He also shares a few metrics and talks about why Van's has become such a beloved brand.

Another guy who got his -8 Transition Training with Bruce Bohannon...moespeeds

I purchased my RV-8 back in June after a 20 year hiatus from flying. I'm low time overall (160 hrs) and low tailwheel time (40 hrs) so I've been doing a lot of poking around to find training. Many people recommended Bruce. Initially I scoffed at the idea of going all the way from NJ to TX just to get some RV8 time, but after some thought and speaking with Bruce on the phone I decided to bite the bullet and go for it.

I arrived in Houston with no expectations, just eager to actually get into the front seat of an 8, as I've only flown mine for a few minutes from the back seat before I tore it down to fix some minor issues. When I got to Bruce's secluded grass strip out in the sticks of South Texas, he greeted me with a cigarette and a cup of coffee. I immediately liked him.  -->

RE: Avionics Wiring ...PilotjohnS DIY

I did it myself.
1) took 2 months of nights, after working on plane all day, to build schematic using the wonderful diagrams in G3x manual.
2) spent 2 days figuring out where boxes were located to have access after top skin was on.
3) spent 3 months cutting sub-panel, mounting plate nuts for those boxes and wiring.
4) spent 2 months putting it all together and getting it in the plane

Things i would differently:
1) leave longer service loops.
2) route wiring harness using right angle corners and grid type design, although there may not be enough space between boxes for a really pretty grid-type routing.

Things I didn't do that was OK:
1) i wired with the sub-panel assembled, but clamp to the bench; I didn't use a plywood wiring panel/jig
2) I labeled all the wires using the heat shrink tubing printed with a Dynon label maker; I would buy a portable one to have at the shop; I relied on a offsite computer to print labels and this was a pain when I was making a change.

Stainless steel grids rv 7 kit

Hi,
I am wondering where to install 2 stainless steel grids included in the kit.
Does anybody know where they belong to?

Nice greetings david

10/28/2021.  Issue #5,433.  Need a Contract SIC?

The Mashy Method

Rob 'Mashy' Reece (RV-8 builder and airport manager of my home field 52F) is helping a friend organize his hangar.  They erected some used shelving like you would find in Home Depot as the first step.  Then, in a stroke of genious, he found a small local company that takes large containers of resin and repackages them into small bottles for redistribution.  The large containers are encased by a very usable metal basket.  This local company sold Rob used, empty containers for $30 each.  Rob cut up the plastic container, leaving a nice way of storing related material.   Up to the top with a forklift and the things you won't need for years are out of your hair but good.

The plan is to make the 'bottom shelf' a 20' long workbench, I believe. 

(click for full size)  Rob Reece photo.

Fuel tank leak?

Hello fellow RV-flyer:

I would like to tap into your experience building an RV12 since mine is SLSA. I noticed some fuel smell in the cockpit a couple of days ago and found this today:

Could you share your opinions about the root cause and possible remedies?
Thanks a lot in advance!
Felix

Howard RV7A Build ...it begins

First real post. Mostly using this VAF as another way of documenting the progress and hopefully having other eyes help identify mistakes. Regardless, others posting here have helped give me ideas on how to tackle this project - many thanks!

Step 1 of Kit 1 started - Empennage arrived, unpacked and inventoried.
- One rib missing VS-706
- One extra rib HS-706
- One bearing missing MD3616M

Also looks like the label are a little different in the BAG 616-PC sub-kit. looks like the correct parts, but the labels are different than what is on the documentation (e.g. HS-411BPP-PC is labeled as HS-411PPC)

More to come.

RE: Plexi Drill Bits

Instead of using progressively larger drill bits to enlarge the pilot holes, I took the recommendation in Section 5 and used reamers. And as mentioned earlier, I oversized the holes slightly to avoid any potential binding. I called Van's Support on this, and they recommended the reamer approach over drilling.

RE: Gear Leg Fairings ...DanH

Attached from Hoerner's Fluid Dynamic Drag.

If the optimum radius is 4 to 8% of chord, there isn't much virtue in a fat fairing. There may be some virtue in extending the tail of the fairing as it joins the pant or fuselage.

I'm a layperson. Steve Smith would have a lot of expertise in this area.

10/27/2021.  Issue #5,432.  Need a Contract SIC?
 

PH-MNX is Almost finished ...Marcel Heijmans

Back from the paint shop and everything assembled. Now the final inspection and Weight and Balance.

New First Flights Reported

Skybolt flanges and Cowl Stiffening

Q: Im getting ready to order the Skybolt firewall kit for my -7.

Couple of questions for those that have gone before me:
Should I order the flanges or is it easier to drill the holes in the cowling by making your own flanges?
I've read Dan Horton says add some carbon fiber strips for stiffness, is this just on the inside?
Hinge or Skybolt for the horizontal section of the cowl?

A: (DanH)
Found a photo Mike. This one has multiple plies of glass tape on the inside edge. It's not bad, certainly not like some I've seen. Still, it does bulge and I gotta look at it. Oil door too, and got about 8 plies of 9oz. This was a job for carbon/core/carbon.

RV-8A...carb heat seems weak...?

During run up, carb heat check shows a very small drop on RPM, (maybe 10-30rpm), and no other noticeable engine data indications such as a change in EGT, fuel flow, etc. You can almost not tell when it's on. I don't have a carb temp gauge in the plane.

Looking at our setup (pic below. bought, not built) I'm wondering if this is typical or if we should add a little baffle material to the flap there, or make a larger flap to get a more complete seal on the main air intake and force it to take more hot air from the engine bay for the carb heat. Concern would of course be blocking too much air from entering...? Any advice here, or examples of what you have is appreciated. Thanks!

Fuselage gear leg fairings

I am trying to fit Vans intersection fairings and there is up to a 3/4" gap in the front, how far can I expect the heat gun to move the fiberglass ?

Rudder cable questions ...12

Is there supposed to be snap bushing thru this hole

Dehydrator condition after a season

on my last flight I noticed my oil temp was only 158F as I have not blocked my oil cooler. I attached the dehydrator an pulled the engine humidity down.

going on my second year this dehydrator material looks OK. I have a closed loop system and just let it run 24/7.

Classic Aero SBS Interiors

It's time to redo the Classic Aero interior in my RV-7. It's showing it's age. I might just go with the same color and pattern scheme as the current interior. However, I'd like to see what cool color combinations and patterns you guys have that might influence my opinion.

10/26/2021.  Issue #5,431.  Need a Contract SIC?
 

10 Years Today

The non-profit my wife co-founded a decade ago is celebrating its tenth year today.  If you're affected by cancer, and you have a smartphone, iPad or laptop, you can take free yoga classes - they primarily do it over Zoom these days.  Classes are online Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5:30pm CST (sign up).

Susie has the biggest heart of anyone I've met, and I thank God every day she's in my life.  Her and four other yoga instructors help bring a little light to a dark place, and I can't think of a better top story.

FMI: www.YogaBridge.org

"(A) non-profit that provides evidence-based coping strategies to complement medical treatment for cancer and recovery. We offer free and low-cost yoga programs to all people affected by cancer. Students are part of a nurturing community where they find relief from fatigue, muscle weakness, and stress.

​In the fall of 2011 Yoga Bridge introduced a unique model of yoga asanas and guided relaxation as a means of supporting those in the healing process of a cancer diagnosis. Yoga classes for cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers are small and allow each student to receive attention. These classes are taught by registered yoga teachers, trained specifically by Yoga Bridge to teach yoga for cancer."

Video about what they do: here

My RV Weekend

Inflatable Paint Booth Size For RV-7

I am building a QB RV-7 in western Colorado, painting as I go using an inflatable paint booth set up just outside my center garage door.

I have the same size inflatable booth as bkervaski above, 26' x 15' x 10'. For peace of mind to guard against an inflation fan failure, I purchased a spare fan, from the usual online vendors.

Individually, the RV-7 QB wings, QB fuselage and individual empennage parts fit easily in that size, but not the whole assembled airplane. As a reference, below is a picture of the full length fuselage in my 26' x 15' x 10' inflatable booth, taken when I painted the interior.

Need tap size for this fitting

Anyone know what the tap size is for this fitting?

Lower Cowl Exit Tweaking...bjdecker

I replaced the large, round cross brace with a more aerodynamic shape. No flight test data yet, but I don't expect much difference.

10/25/2021.  Issue #5,430.
  Sunday at the sim one of the instructors texted me to come meet an RV-6 builder/owner he was training.  And the other client paired with him was based at Aurora.  Those RV folks are everywhere! ;^)
  Need a Contract SIC?
 

Bucket List Item ...Paul_5r4

I plan on a trip to the Petit Jean fly in every year. Two years ago I was heading to the fly in and my alternator crapped out... low volts. After a landing to rule out something easy to fix, I flew back home with the master off. At that time I changed out to an automotive alternator to eliminate much of the cost, down time due to waiting for a new one, and availability at nearly any auto parts store, even on a Sunday!  -->

Fall colors in northern Italy ...lucaperazzolli

There are special feelings that I like to share with you and here I am.

Every year in our area there are 8 maybe 10 days where foliage and lights are really great, we love to catch this special moment. No editing, just first shots out of cameras.

79th Birthday Flight

I think he enjoyed it!

Old farts forming up for another season ...Turbo

Old Farts...
The photos pretty much tell the story! Give or take a couple... 45 Old Fart aircraft graced the ramp at Okeechobee County (KOBE) on Thursday, October 21st. This was our kickoff of the 2021-22 season.

As usual, we had a broad mix. I saw everything from a tiny Sonex to a much larger vintage 1957 Cessna 310 twin. My old Stearman was the only biplane. Turbo Eddie's R-44 was the only chopper. Several Old Farts arrived in new, or new-to-them, aircraft... to include a Rans Outbound, Javaron Cub, Glasair IV, CTLS and an Alon/Mooney Ercoupe. What a GREAT turnout! A huge thanks to all who attended! Your presence makes Old Farts the fun, friendship and camaraderie that it has evolved into.

Big Cut done

I'm trying to get the canopy work done before it turns cold here in Kansas, and today was the day.

I researched this a ton before I jumped in, and it seems like there are a million ways to accomplish this. Everybody has their go-to process. In an effort to help anybody who's in the same situation I was yesterday (reading every thread I could find for tips on the simplest way to do this), here's the way I went about it.

A couple of days ago I trimmed off up to the mold line with a dremel saw max and the wheel that Larry Larson recommended in his excellent kit planes article. It worked fine for that up on my shop tables.

For THE BIG CUT I felt like I'd rather have it low enough that I could get to the center without standing on a stool so I built a small pallet and did it on the floor.

The pallet was made from some 1x3" pine across a couple of 2x4s. I ran a few strips of duct tape across the bottom of the canopy to keep it from splaying out and padded the edges with scraps of the foam that the canopy frame was padded with as shipped from Vans.

The trade off here is that with it sitting this low I knew I would have a problem getting the saw max all the way to the edge.

I laid down 3 layers of blue tape on each side of the cut line to make a sort of ditch or cut guide and just cut it with the Vans's supplied disk in my 90* die grinder.

Made about 4-5 passes, starting at the edge, running up to the center, then switching sides. After I judged it was mostly through, I started cutting all the way through at one edge, went up about 6 inches, clamped the edge, then went to the other side.

After I got both sides started, I went through in the center about 3" on each side of centerline and then duct taped the cut line so it wouldn't sag when the two halves got close to coming apart. I went back to the lower edges and cut them about 4-6" at a time, alternating back and forth and duct taping as I went.

It was about 70* in the shop, but the afternoon sun had been shining in through a big window directly on the canopy for a couple of hours so it was probably a little warmer than that.

No drama, but I'm glad it's done!

Rudder Trailing Edge

I used the VHB tape that is now recommended in the manual for trailing edges. I don't love how it turned out. I have no idea what I did wrong. The trailing edge is pretty straight, but the tape obviously did not hold the skin to the wedge, so the puckering of the skin is pretty bad. Everything looked great when it was clecoed to the aluminum angle, but as I riveted, it all went downhill. I back riveted just enough to set the rivets, then turned it over so the shop head was on the back rivet plate and set them the rest of the way.

I'm not sure if I leave it since overall it's straight, or if I need to try to remedy it somehow. A mechanic I know just said "looks like most Cessnas - that's what bondo is for." Do I leave it? I'm just not sure what to do different next time.

Tailwinds to Daytona

Flew from La Porte (KPPO) to Daytona Beach (KDAB) last Sunday on the front side of a monster high pressure system. Gave my Mountain High O2S2 system a test on the first leg to Anderson, SC cruising at 15,000 for the 2.6 hour flight. Top ground speed was 223 KTS at 6.6 gph running LOP. The photo was just after level off and getting settled in for the beautiful dawn flight.

The photo documents 219 KTS ground speed, 154 KTS TAS running LOP with a 65 knot tailwind. Typically can top out about 166 KTS TAS at 8,000 best power.

10/22/2021.  Issue #5,429.
  Wishing you and yours a happy, safe and RV-filled weekend.
    Need a Contract SIC?
 

Explore Maryland by Air: Program Complete ...Vlad 9A

Program completed. The highest award was shipped to my Utah address. Thanks for fun Maryland!

-8 Rudder Pedal Mod ...SuperCubDriver PIREP

I riveted an aluminum angle (3/4 or 19mm) on the lower pedal. So the foot pressure is below the tilt axes and I can still rest my feet below the pedals on long flights - works perfect for me.

Smoky sunset during Phase 1

While flying off my probation last summer, the smoke from a distant fire turned the sky golden red. I played with some filters, and got this.

Under Wing NACA Duct ...Carlos151 PIREP

I did mine sitting flat on the bench with no rivets. 6 years flying and about 11 years since installing it, still going strong with zero issues. "Wrapped" the pro seal over the top of the flange. Probably didn't need to do that but... Also used SCAT ducting instead of the Vans supplied plastic ducting.

Performance update...bjdecker

Ok, I've had some time to fly with the modified cowl exit ramp and I am happy to report a pretty substantial decrease in CHT's, and modest increase in TAS/IAS.  --->

VS skin deformed -- how bad is it?

I don't really want to post this, but I've got to know how serious this is: I finished skinning my vertical stabilizer a couple of days ago, and following the directions clecoed everything, made sure the holes aligned and that the leading flanges on the ribs were properly radiused so as not to deform the skins. Aside from the tight fit of the skin on the skeleton everything went smoothly. Yesterday I was looking it over one more time and I noticed a small deformity around the leading starboard rivet on the VS-1205 rib. I looked inside and found that the flange had deflected slightly away from the skin so that it wasn't fully in contact with the skin. I think there had been enough play in the clecos that when I put that rivet in it wasn't obvious at the time. Anyway, there's a small ridge on the skin where the edge of the rib is pushing out, and the skin around the rivet is recessed slightly as the rivet is pulling it in towards the bent flange. I dread removing 126 or more rivets, but I'll do it if I need to. I've asked Van's for an engineering opinion, but I'd welcome your thoughts as well. Seems this has been a bad week for my build after starting out strong. I've attached a few images. It was hard to capture the surface deformity and the shadows make it look worse than it seems in real life.

SB 99-06-1 REV 2 ....live on mothership today

Applies to 6/6A.  "We've reviewed this as well as other past reports, and Van's Aircraft will be revising SB 99-6-1, removing the option for compliance by inspection every 10 hours. The original service bulletin was issued more than 20 years ago. Any aircraft that has not yet been brought into compliance by replacing or modifying the pedals has likely experienced a significant number of years/hours in service. Therefore, the potential is now even greater for existing unmodified parts to be weakened as a result of use and environmental factors.

Our engineering team has therefore determined that the proper course of action is to revise the SB to require either replacement of the parts with the current version, or reinforcement of the existing pedals with the gusset kit that's been available free of charge from Van's since 1999. The details are in the service bulletin document, and we plan to publish the revised version on Thursday before the close of business.

While compliance with service bulletins is technically at the discretion of the owner/operator of the aircraft, Van's Aircraft strongly recommends complying with all service bulletins, including achieving compliance by implementing the changes outlined in this bulletin for operational safety reasons."

RV-12iS Status Report ...Riley Spoon

Today was Dynon day. Installed most of the components and am really pleased with the way it looks. Tomorrow I will tackle the ADAHRS. Then on to the rest of the engine installation.

RV-10 N810TJ - Tyson in Snohomish, WA

Greetings! I can't help by feel like my post may be a bit premature, but we are officially on the waiting list for our RV-10 empennage and wing kits!

I have some prior building experience from an RV-6A kit I was building in the 90s. Being in my teens at the time, looking down the barrel of the engine/prop/avionics costs was too much to bear and the kit was eventually sold.

Looking forward to getting back in the saddle and seeing this one through to completion!
__________________
Tyson Taylor
RV-10 N810TJ (Reserved)
Empennage & Wing Kits Ordered 10/2021

10/21/2021.  Issue #5,428.
  Been a bit busier than usual these past few days with extra paper routes and such in the hunt for daily sustenance - sorry if I've been more unreachable than usual.  Varied 24 hour sched this last week.
    Need a Contract SIC?

SteinAir Garage Sale...things going fast

It's time once again for fall cleaning, which means we have some items that are extra to our needs. As always, we have a first come first serve policy and shipping charges are not included in the price. Please contact us offline (phone, email, PM, etc..) to purchase. List will be updated as items are sold and/or added. Here's what we have:

Bar Harbor Trip

My "weekend" took place over the whole week. Flew from central TX to Bar Harbor Maine to admire the colors of the foliage change. 1st stop was Atlanta, GA to pick up my sister. Then a few days in Bar Harbor.

Trip included 23 flight hours, 4,000 miles, 20 take-off and landings & 4 instrument approaches all with the two favorite women in my life. It was a fantastic trip!

TS Flightlines/Aircraft Specialty Red Cube install Kit

Just wanted to share the install I just did on my Red Cube.

After looking at numerous different installs, I decided to go with the install bracket by TS Flightlines/Aircraft Specialty. A nice turnkey option that is very well documented.

The core of the kit is a beautiful custom bracket and hose. The install has you move the outlet from the bottom of the fuel servo to the top which I think is much cleaner. and also remove the 90* fitting from the flow divider and install a straight one.

I was worried the bracket bolt would be a difficult chore but ended up being a non issue and the install was a breeze. It's nice to have this job behind me

-8 Pedal Mods ...DanH

The pedal geometry issue is different for various leg lengths and foot sizes. What works for Paul can't be expected for me; he's a sports car and I'm a pickup truck

Long legs and size 14's mean (1) the knees are higher, (2) heels are more aft on the floor, and (3) the ball of the foot is higher on the pedal assembly. It does become difficult to stay off the brakes.

I've played with a few things, and the best Bigfoot Mod seems to be a short length of thinwall aluminum tube across the pedal, at the pivot line or a little below. Three pop rivets hold it from the back, so the mod is easily removable. The trick is to crush the tube into an oval shape to adjust offset thickness to accommodate your own ankle angle at rest. See the photo.

This mod does not interfere with sliding the feet through the pedal for leg extension during cruise.

While on the subject of pedals, I noted interference in the stock assembly at the lower mount for the brake cylinder. To eliminate interference at full pedal travel, the slot needs to be clearanced as shown, or the tab on the pedal mount needs modified. The inspection telltale is the paint chip at "A" because it hits in position "B".

Re-wire for electronic ignition

Hey Everyone,
My dual magnetos are close to the 500 hour mark so I'm looking at changing my ignition system. My plane already has dual alternator and dual battery, so I'm considering going with dual electronic ignition. The plane has 4 switches which connect/activate the alternators and batteries to the main bus. FWIW, the plane is using an ACM from advanced and the EFIS has a backup battery as well.

For the purpose of this thread, lets IGNORE debate on:
1. Which ignition system is best
2. Why not just use a P-mags (which I am considering)

My main question is assuming I do dual electronic ignition that does NOT have its own power source, what is the best way to wire them into my plane? I've seen some cool setups that split the plane's power into two halves with one ignition on each half which seems optimal, but this would require more switches, more solenoids, 3 more wires to the batteries in the back of the plane, another volt meter, and more complexity.

The RV Weekend

Just a relaxing 4 country flight in my incredible traveling machine - Spain, Andorra, France, Switzerland. Can't say enough good things about my RV-6.9. For those of you building, "get'er done!"

PS
the destination, Andorra LESU, kinda Sedona-ish Thought it was rv8ch aka Mickey there

Status: ...Jslow2

Initial left wing assembly.

Kit transportation costs

Goooood Morning! Hope you all are doing well. Wanted to get some general input on what people are seeing to move aircraft kits/partial kits etc. Lots of you may remember the checklist I used to send out but back fulltime and happy to see everybody!!!!
Best,
Brian Wallis
(looking for another RV - may just build this time)
Still kicking myself for selling my RV-3! Got a Twin Comanche but it's not even close....
__________________
Brian Wallis

Tip-up Getting There ...cgeyman

Need a quick sanity check- slider canopy

Hey guys- I'm positioning the canopy frame in the canopy in preparation for drilling the hole for the latch handle.

As those of you who have gone before know, the plans are somewhat vague in tis area and just say something to the effect of "position for best fit." I also understand that ultimately the plexi needs to overhang teh aft bows by about 0.5-1.0"

I think I'm there, but just want to ask for some confirmation before I drill the hole.

I'm ending up with the center aft bow/spine joint about 2" forward of the forward edge of the canopy aft mold line. Does this sound about right?

I just have paranoid visions of getting the windscreen ridiculously short if I get this wrong and I have room to slide the frame a little further aft if need be.

Thanks!

10/20/2021.  Issue #5,427.  Need a Contract SIC?

Milestone: Alex DeDominicis' RV-7

My RV Weekend

Just a relaxing 4 country flight in my incredible traveling machine - Spain, Andorra, France, Switzerland. Can't say enough good things about my RV-8. For those of you building, "get'er done!"

Thanks Van's!

Static Port problem Update ...Iluke

I collected and analyzed more data and confirmed that my IAS is reading low across the speed range, suggesting high pressure in the static system.

I am posting pictures of my static ports and would welcome any thoughts.

How do I know IAS is low? I ran the three-leg test recording GPS ground speed, averaging it to adjust for wind, corrected to TAS using an electronic E6B for temperature, altitude and altimeter setting. I consistently found IAS 4-5 MPH low at pattern and approach speeds and 7-9 MPH low at cruise.

This suggests that the pressure differential between the pitot and static lines is less than it ought to be, meaning either the pitot side is too low or the static side is too high. I did a leak-test on the pitot side and found no significant leak-down. So my suspicion is that the static ports are somehow resulting in high pressure.

Is my logic sound?

Wire & Pitot/AOA Routing ...John Tierney PIREP

Here's how I routed my pitot and AOA lines. Wires were in the Van's recommended wing rib location, near the aft end of the access panels, not under the bell crank.

Slick 500 SB

We see many airplanes come in way past the recomended Slick magneto 500 hr SB. Most of them have some worn parts in them, and some are potentialy pretty serious. I opened one up today that had right at 502 hours on it, and thought I would share with you why these should be done.

This one was ready to fail. I'm actually surprised it was working with any reliabilty, considering all of the metal shavings inside it. It appears that the carbon brush had worn completely down, and now the shaft of the distributor gear was cutting directly into the coil contact.

I've not ever seen one this bad at 500 hours. We all know that the RV's have been commanding some premium prices for some time now, and as with any "opportunistic" times, there are builders that go on the cheap and make a pretty good profit for the unawares buyer. In this case, it was an RV-10, in which a field re-built engine was installed. My guess would be that a "new" magneto was not really used.

Do pay attention to SB's. They are there for a reason. For those of you who are non-builder owners, make sure you ask your A&P to cehck them for you.

Flap actuator

This is about my RV-7A. I'm not the builder.

On a flight Saturday upon putting the flaps down for landing, the flap actuator disassembled itself. The flaps came up and I made a no flap landing.

See photo. The jam nut was not down that far when I opened it up. I moved it down when examining the unit.

Do I just screw the threaded rod back into the actuator and tighten the jam nut? In the drawings I have and the instructions, they indicate that there should be a safety wire from the lower end of the actuator to around the bolt. But in other photos on this site of flap actuators, I've not seen safety wires. So I'm a bit confused as to the proper way to reassemble this. Thanks.

10/19/2021.  Issue #5,426.
  Excuse the late push - extra paper route (sim).
   Need a Contract SIC?
 

RV-6 VH-SOL...a Mark Newton tour

I bought this airplane from its second owner ten years ago.

By GA standards, it's been a cheap couple of seats. It's been reliable, maintenance has been painless, and an RV grin every weekend is a lot cheaper than therapy

My RV Weekend ...continued

Wire and Pitot/AOA routing around aileron crank

My project arrived with wire conduits installed. The large one is along the bottom of the rib behind the large opening in the ribs. No problem. There is a smaller conduit for Pitot heat and roll servo that ends in the bay outside of the aileron bellcrank. It's routed directly beneath the pivot point of the bellcrank. I plan to route the Pitot and AOA tubes above and below this conduit and the bellcrank, but will this conduit in this location interfere with the aileron operation?

Empennage Fiberglass Part Deux?

I purchased my kit from another builder who had done the fiberglass work on the tail before receiving the fuselage. I had some concerns using the horizontal stab/elevators as is, but mounting the rudder today I think it will be unusable at least with the suggested rod end lengths. Having not done these steps myself I'm unsure if its feasible to remove and reinstall the existing parts or if it would be better to place a new order with Vans and start fresh. Suggestions on removing the existing glass without damaging the aluminum?

Fixing a broken finger...

...a broken gear leg fairing attach finger, that is!

I know many builders have had to fix broken gear leg attachment fingers - the portions of the gear leg that are held in place by breeze clamps. Haven't had a lot of luck with forum searches on this topic, so if you've had to fix this area AND your fix has held for awhile, I'd love to know what you did.

Many thanks -

Dave

WH-00125 ...Brian Perry RV14 PIREP

I followed the directions on the wiring diagram available on Van's website.

It has you file a notch in the pass throughs to get the molex connector through without depinning. It was a bit tedious but did work.

First Priming session done

Making slow but sure progress. Primed rear spar and tie-down assemblies. Lots of detail on the blog post, but here are some highlight photos. Next up is Rear Spar assembly and installing the tie-downs.

Paint booth worked out great!

10/18/2021.  Issue #5,425.  Need a Contract SIC?
 

My RV Weekend

Plenum Update ...motodave

After fighting with designing a mold (and tweaking it) and fabricating my custom plenum to fit my James cowl for over a month it's finally at state I will call done for now other than a slight trimming of the intakes. I will end up with some sort of very thin gasket on the edges and still need to go around the engine seal with RTV or similar to close all the small gaps between baffles and engine. Tip, if you can buy a plenum do it (I could not), making your own is a ton of work and still pretty darn expensive.

Details: I have 2 layers of 8oz FG on top of a Soric layer and then on the inside a layer of carbon fiber ($) for the body of the plenum. The intakes are multiple layers FG and then a ring of CF on the intakes. I used Fiberglast high temp industrial epoxy as I was concerned about heat soak on shut done. Nut plates are riveted to the inside with SS screws and fiber washer, holes in baffles are slightly oversize to allow some give with temp and engine vibrations. The plenum is pretty light 2-3lbs and very stiff.

I hope it works for me.

Milestone...AdamB

My MT propeller came yesterday and I just had to mount it to see how it looks and check the cowl fit.

Almost ready to fly...just more paperwork ...Joewebb

Vans RV-6 #24871 almost done.  A walkaround video:

Alternator Mounting Bracket Cracked

Good Morning Everyone,

I was changing the oil in my 6A and wiping off grime and found a through-and-through crack on the cast aluminum mounting bracket for the alternator (see pics). I was wondering if anyone knew where to purchase a replacement off the shelf or the torque spec for the mounting bolts to the engine case and alternator pin. The alternator is on the starboard side of the case, and the engine is an ECi XIO-360. Thank you so much for the help!

Drip...drip...JwWright57

I was going through my 12Is after the first flight and found a drip on the lower fuel tank line (feed to fuel pumps). It's really strange. At first i thought it was oil blown back from the engine (oil was a little overfilled) . It has the consistency of oil and no gas smell. So i cleaned everything off and did some pattern work and then let it sit and this was the pic next time. It's obviously gas, but it doesn't smell like gas! It's almost like jellied gas. It has the right color, the car gas i'm using is yellow and this is intensely yellow.

I cleaned it all up again and ran both fuel pumps and stared at it for a few minutes and didn't see any leakage whatsoever. Double weird!

I guess the next step is to drain the tank and take off that line and see what the heck is going on.

Anybody seen anything like this?

BTW, engine seems like it's running fine. I did have a slightly low fuel pressure while doing the climb to 10k test ( at around 9400 feet) don't know if that means anything.

How to Jack Up an RV-12

RV-12iS Maintenance Manual, Page 1-17

Status Report ...goatflieg

Latest Blogspot post is up; see link in signature. More hubris and heartbreak. Here's the obligatory teaser photo:

RV-14A N9030 #141157

After years of research, planning, and saving, it's official. We're expecting! Deposit cashed and our place in line happened at 01:22am PST. #141157

We've been following so many of your builds, learning, and enjoying the posts and talent on here.

Pics and vids later. Time to finish up the shop garage "hangar."
__________________
John Houston
EMS Helicopter Pilot

Panel Progress ...markpsmith

Status Report....David Paule -3B (many pix)

10/15/2021.  Issue #5,424.
  The Petit Jean gathering is this weekend.  Hope everyone travelling to it has a wonderful time - bet it's crazy crowded with RVs.  Wishing you and yours a happy, safe and RV-filled weekend.
   Need a Contract SIC?

Videos: Flying the Dragon Mountains (South Africa)

The Drakensberg (Dragon Mountains in Afrikaans, named due to resembles of a dragons back, is a significant mountain range in South Africa, stretches 600 miles long and have peaks of 11,000 ft)

I recently had the opportunity to fly these mountains and surrounding areas in good weather, and could get nice and close up and personal.

I hope these 3 videos capture the splendour, and cement the flying memories.

Enjoy!

RV-12 Status ...N8DAV8R

End of the section 29 and end of the fuselage kit seems like a good reason to post for the first time in this thread. Excited to get started on installing controls and getting through the finish kit!

RV-10 Panel Update ...Martin R.

While the cockpit is not complete, the mechanical panel work is done. Everything designed in 3D and then waterjet cut and anodized. Stock panel design. The radio stack fits underneath the central rib, no cutouts needed.
All switches and dials will sit on the bar below the panel. Above the switches, a dimmable, dense micro-led-bar (360 LEDs) will backlight Dymo printed black on clear labels on milk glas covered with thin acrylic for protection.
The master caution and master warning light also has Dymo printed labels underneath the cover.
If anyone is interested in the 3D-design, I open-sourced it here on OnShape (create a free account, then clone the design):

Pepto Pink Cowl

Vans Pepto Pink Cowl 1: Wirejock 0
Some days you get the bear. Some days you get mauled to death by the Vans Pepto Pink Cowl
Clearly I messed up. I barely trimmed anything just to get the two seams straight.
Yes, I know the cowl is over the skin but even after trimming flush, that gap ain't closing.
My plan is to layup a scarf joint on each half seam, but not full thickness. That way the two halves can overlap. Then I cut and fit the cowl to the firewall properly and use a laser level to shoot the side seam cut line. Yes, the bird is level both long and lat. Then finish adding glass to the strip to full thickness.

Anyone have a better solution please let me know. Chime in.

Fly-In at Woodland (O41) Saturday

Woodland is hosting their first-ever Classic Aircraft Fly-In Saturday October 16 starting at 0800. The organizer says they hope to have it be a monthly event, and homebuilts are welcome.
__________________
Mike Bell
RV4-->6-->6A, (built by Villanueva, Tolle, and Mosher)
AirCam finished and flying!
RV-14A under construction.
Cameron Park, CA (O61)

Panel Shot ...g_zero

10/14/2021.  Issue #5,423.  Need a Contract SIC?

Woo Hoo Engine Mounted...rileyspoon

Got the last official bag of parts which included the bolts I needed to mount the engine. Now on to the electrical and avionics. Just one last part for the right gear leg!

Why SteinAir Rocks

[ed...re: my "use Stein as a middleman when buying used avionics" thing.  v/r,dr]

(Stein) "Indeed this business is fraught with unknowns and characters of all type. That said, sometimes just the opposite is true.

As an example, yesterday both a seller and buyer called me to arrange a cross border sale and have us mediate it. I've known both the buyer and seller for a very long time and could vouch for each of them as extremely trustworthy folks, so in that case I told each of them not to waste their money on our escrow service because I could personally vouch for both of them...no need to get a third party involved other than a simple phone call - and we're happy to do that as well!"

Propeller orientation

Q: Does it matter how a propeller is oriented when installed? I.E. with #1 cylinder at TDC, should the propeller be installed in the vertical, horizontal, or somewhere in between? I'm just wondering if there's a "best practice" or recommended procedure out there. FWIW, I'm installing a WhirlWind GA200L on a Lycoming O290D2.

Any suggestions and/or anecdotes are much appreciated.

A: (RVator 1992)

"T" off MAP from NPT bulkhead fitting suggestions?

Installing the new P-Mags onto the IO-540 and I need to pipe them both to MAP. My current MAP setup has a 1/4 bulkhead fitting that I am wondering if anyone knows of an adaptor that would work between this to plumb off a MAP hose. It eventually needs to go to a 1/8 hose. Been looking at options and just curious if anyone has any simple solutions out there. Closest thing I have found is this banjo fitting but I'm not entirely sure it would work.

10/13/2021.  Issue #5,422. 
  Please excuse the early Wed push - part time side job...
   Need a Contract SIC?
 

Riv pound Technique?

They say if you do the same thing over and over and get the same results, and expect different? You're nuts! I hope I'm not nuts and expect to finish this and actually fly it.  Any suggestions why I'm getting the "smile" on the lower half of shop head?  And, more importantly what can I do to remedy my behavior (technique)?

GSA 28 roll servo install question (RV-7)

Q:  I'm installing a GSA 28 servo on the R wing of my 7A using the RV-7/8/10 install kit. The stop bracket that comes with the servo overlaps with the mounting bracket, so that if the stop bracket is attached to the servo first, the servo will not lie flush with the mounting bracket. If the servo is attached to the mounting bracket first, the stop bracket will not lie flush to the servo. Should I trim away the overlapping portion of the mounting bracket, or shim the servo to the mounting bracket to account for the thickness of the stop bracket? Or am I missing something all together?

A: Thats addressed in the Garmin install manual and the unevenness is just how it is

Beacon in top VS fairing.

VS fairing. Sanded grey gel coat off & mounted red LED strip inside. Coated in west systems tinted red & top coat of metallic silver.

How to countersink these holes? (RV-12)

Well, I promised lots of questions a few months back and my first RV-12 kit finally arrived and it hasn't taken long for me to run into my first puzzle: I can't figure out how to do countersink a hole in tight quarters. On page 06-04, step 3 the instructions innocently say to countersink four holes, but two of the holes are next to a flange and my 1" diameter countersink cage doesn't come close to fitting. I don't see any narrower cages online, and I haven't found anyone else mentioning this problem. So how did you all manage to accomplish this step? I've attached the plan diagram and a photo of the actual part. The holes in question are 1/4" away from the flange.

Am I missing something obvious?

10/12/2021.  Issue #5,421.
  A quick 18 minutes post-storms Monday morning - smooth on the ground.  Smooth until you got about 500agl, then it was 30kts from the side with turb.  Checked on the car lot west of our field full of insurance totaled cars and trucks while keeping a jumping spider (Phidippus Audax) I discovered on my glareshield at bay.  That's why the canopy is open in the shot below, waiting for that monster to leave.  The interweb later said that it was harmless, but *I* thought it was going to eat my face off.  Reading how far they can jump reinforces my earlier belief.  Queue scene from We're The Millers...
  Need a Contract SIC?

click full size

Crack??? Second/third opinions please...

I was doing a preflight this evening and discovered this on the rudder control horn. It sure looked like a crack and seemed to be verified because of the spot on the end that wraps to the thinner fore/aft surface. It's only on the aft side of the rudder horn. No sign of anything on the forward side. With the exception of the crack appearing to go around the corner like you see in first picture, the right side was exactly the same as the left pictured here.

RV-14/14A for MS Flight Sim - Sneak Peek ...mothership Greg

We've been working with a flight-sim modeling company that requested to build out the RV-14/14A for MS Flight Simulator 2020. Maybe some of the folks here "fly" MS Flight Sim. It's visually pretty amazing! Here's what we spotted on the virtual ramp this weekend:

The development team doing this work has asked for some community assistance in two areas, for anyone interested. Be sure to act quickly on both of these since there's not a lot of time!
RV-14 owners who might be interested in their paint livery appearing on the model are welcome to send photos
They'll need a few experienced SIM drivers who are also quite familiar with the 14/14A to help do some testing

For both opportunities, please email media 'at' vansaircraft.com and we will pass all the photos and contact info along to the developers.

EZ - BUCK Bucking Bars

Another DIY idea for bucking rivets in those hard to reach, inconvenient locations - like the narrow space at the leading edges of the vertical & horizontal stabs, closing out the wing skins by yourself, etc. Or?

By having "indexing" holes in the bar that accommodate an adjacent cleo; and, having the bar long enough to span a single (or double) rivet "pitch", you simply locate the bar over the cleo, push the bar against the adjacent web, and hold it against the rivet shank - then drive rivet. Almost all variables associated with holding the bar correctly in restricted or hidden locations are taken away, and your attention can be focused on the driving process only.

As an added benefit, since the bar remains stationary during the driving process, you can mark the "target" area with black magic marker, which gets "erased" by the setting of the rivet, leaving in indication of the size and shape of the bucked head. A simple solution for checking bucked head quality in restricted spaces.

The drawing shown below is pretty "raw" - done in 1995, but you get the idea.

The bars shown are tungsten and were made for me by Midwest Tungsten Service many years ago - these have gotten way to expensive at today's prices. My early prototypes were made from simple mild steel - A36 1 x 2, they worked just fine, only a little light on mass - hence going to the tungsten.

If there is any interest in MYO - I have the drawings I made and will send/post them if requested.

YMMV - And probably will!

HFS

RV-8 MikeW Anaheim CA ...new builder

Well I slapped this wing stand together a few years ago hoping it would motivate me to start building again. Didn't work. Then we moved two years ago and the disassembled stand sat on the side of the house for over a year. I finally started building again and so i brought the stand in the garage and put it together. I quickly found out i didn't do that great of a job on it and was afraid to trust it with the wings so I ended up spending quite a bit of time redoing it. Anyway it seems about ready. Onward and upward.
__________________
Mike Whaley #83456
Anaheim Hills, CA
RV-8 slow build

10/11/2021.  Issue #5,420.
  A blindingly fast weekend trifecta of midnight sims, accounting and site work - sleep schedule blown <g>.  Day 3 of no sweet tea to minimize sugar intake, so nonstop headache <g>.  Yuck!  Hope you got to RViate a little.  Updated both the RV White Pages and RV Hotel List over the weekend also.  That Petite Jean gathering is shaping up to be a real hit if the Wx plays along.  Goal this week is to update the Probable Cause page and the Donations page. Thanks again for helping with the food in my belly thing (but with less sugar).
  Need a Contract SIC?

My RV Weekend

RV-8 Sold ...Kevin Horton

Today was a very bittersweet day, as I handed over the RV-8 to its new owner. He flew the aircraft north, to a new home back in Canada.

Tip Up Canopy Weatherstrip

Need recommendations for weatherstripping where the rear of a tip up canopy meets the support bar. There was worn out felt there that needed to be replaced. Picture attached to show area.

Stewart Systems EkoPrime Test

If anyone's curious, I wanted to see how EkoPrime would stand up to abuse on an acid etch only surface vs an acid etch plus Scotch Brite scuffed surface. I primed parts a week ago and primed a scrap piece with half prepped each way. 24 hours after the primer was put on (cool weather, so I'm positive the primer still had a ways to go to truly cure), I hit it with a sharp awl. The awl cut through the acid etch only side with minimal effort. While it cut through the scuffed surface to an extent, it was not nearly as noticeable. In the picture, the acid etch only portion is the top half (right under the word "awl") and the scuffed portion is the lower half of the metal.

Wing Root Fuel Filters ...Ray Tonks PIREP

Here is a pic of mine. I got the bracket drawing from a fellow VAFer. I modified it slightly. Its a tight fit for sure if you have the larger filters like I do. I ended up doing lots of test bends to make sure I could get it all put together.

David Paule -3B Status Report

Since I haven't decided between a vinyl wrap or paint, I selected some colors of the wrap that I liked and placed small samples on the top of my pickup's shell to see how they handle the bright Colorado sun. Wish I'd thought of doing this back when I got them at the beginning of the year.

Gear down - interior trial fit - starting on engine next.

Got all three wheels on and moved the plane off the build table onto the floor. Did a trial fit of the interior just to see what it will look like. Firewall is ready to start the engine work so I have to figure out how to get it un-crated and moved without a hoist.

My First Grin

Hello, my name is Boozer (government name is Craig Boozer) and I got my first grin about 5 weeks ago in a friends 2003 Cirrus SR20. So with that being said I started my search for a Van's RV6 right hear on the VAF site. A couple weeks later I purchased I my first plane, a 1997 Van's RV-6A with 88.4 TTHR from (FLYBUMTOO).

Dropped and bent c-frame dimpler

I have or... had a cleveland c-frame dimpler. I've been loving it! It's been making crisp beautiful dimples and I get to feel like a blacksmith whacking it with a hammer.

10/8/2021.  Issue #5,419.
  Wishing you and yours a happy, safe and RV-filled weekend.
  Need a Contract SIC?
 

First Flight ...Dennis Harm RV-14A

Hi everyone, 

Had my first flight yesterday. What a great flying plane. A few bugs to work out but nothing too serious.  Thanks to everyone who helped in the build, especially Tim Olson. His build web site and help with transition training made the first flight great.

Dual Alternators ...rapid_ascent PIREP

Here is a screenshot of my schematic. Mostly it came directly from Bob K. schematics. I have dual B&C alternators and regulators.

I have dual switches, but the switchover will be automatic as others have said. The two regulators are set at different regulation voltages so the backup alternator doesn't kick-in normally. When the voltage drops then it starts to operate.

I don't have all of this configured yet but presumably a low voltage detect will result in a warning indication and at that point I would see there is no current output out of the primary alternator and I would shutdown the primary alternator and possibly go to a limited set of avionics.

FWD Baggage Compartment ...what fixnflyguy did

I'm not sure what your current configuration is, but I fabricated a center stack console that houses my fuel gauges, trim indicators and X-ponder. It left me a nice space above the GTX327 to make a simple insert that I covered in some black auto trunk covering material and is perfect for my Nexus 7 tablet, sunglasses, gloves, ect. I opted for no door because it isn't really needed as it slopes slightly downward. It screws into the vertical rails I built the same way AVX trays are made and can be removed easily.

Poor Radio Quality on one Freq, one radio

I've got two radios in my RV - an SL-30 and a GNC 250XL GPS/Comm.

We're required to talk to departure at my field, and there is one frequency which always, always sounds terrible in my ears when I transmit on the SL-30. Scratchy and staticky. (125.12 out of VKX, if you're interested.)

Doesn't do that on any other frequency on that radio or on the other radio. It's just that freq on that radio.

The noise only appears to be on my side - ATC says it sounds fine on their side. It's not my headset, either - I've verified it with a Lightspeed Zulu, a QT Halo and a CQ. Same behavior on all.

What could cause that kind of noise on just one frequency on one radio?

Wing Install to Fuse PIREP ...YvesCH

I was building my 8 in the basement of a industrial company with a huge door to the employee parking. I waited until there was a long weekend (during easter break we are off from thursday to tuesday).. So I could take the fuselage and wings out in the parking area to do this work.

If you have the wings already on there are several things you can do, which makes life easier on the airport:

- Setting the wing incidence and drill the rear spar.
- Attaching and drilling the forward tank attachments
- Rigging the ailerons and flaps
- Find the proper spot for the flap fairing and drill / rivet them in place
- make the fuel connections to the fuselage
- fit the wing- fuselage fairing skins
- check and mark the position of the wires / pitot lines exiting the fuselage towards the wing (dont forget the foot wells of the pax they go quite low and in this spot you can`t properly exit the fuselage... don`t ask why I know)
- Make the upper gear leg fairings

So plan enough time if you want to do those things at home where you have access to all your tools.. otherwise you have to do those things at the airport... I was very happy to have done most of the things listed above.

RV-9A: Cal's build ...update

10/7/2021.  Issue #5,418.
  Texas Wednesday at noon - guess what all the local RV folks did?  It was 00000 CAVU pretty much all morning and there was a big capital 'H' parked just west of DFW.  The mood around the field was pretty much like the first day of summer as a kid.  Here before we know it it'll be cold, but it sure is nice now.
  Lot of RV smiles in the area...
  Need a Contract SIC?

Western Adventure ...A Ben Nabors Trip Writeup

RV-4 Status Report...Pete O Static

Ready for Mooney hunting season.

the panel

Heat Shield Tape Failure - PIREP

I was attempting to improve my cowl exit flow and needed to replace some heat shield. I had used some HVAC tape in the past, but it was not at the hangar so purchased some from the local hardware. It came off and added restriction to the flow and gave me higher CHTs in the first flight.

Here is a test of Vans shield, 3M tape, VentureTape 1520CW, and iTape. A large steel washer added for loading, and placed in the oven. 200F, 250F, 275F, 300F and 350F for 30 min each. The iTape dropped off 30 sec after beginning ramp above 200F. The remainder stayed attached and no drooping to 350F where smell in the kitchen terminated the test.

Conclusion(s): Be careful what tape you use. Vans is good stuff. 3M publishes 300F as the upper limit but maybe it was a more severe test. I would dangle from a horizontal surface if tested again - - like a peeling load.

Build on . . . .

Milestone: First Rib ...Jslow2

How High am I?

[Data source - G3X Touch flight log, GTN650xi data log]

I have been chasing an apparent static system "problem" which results in erroneous readings in IAS/TAS.

I flew a number of GPS tracks following the test procedure detailed in Kit Planes, NTPS, etc. and come to the realization that my TAS as reported by Garmin G3X Touch is in error by >5kts.

I then spent time looking for pitot/static leaks (none found), but something interesting did show up in the data wrt Baro/Altimeter/Altitude data.

If WAAS GPS (C146), xDOP, VFOM are to be believed - my aircraft was 500ft Higher than what is indicated on the G3X (7000ft vs 6500ft).

This difference in altitude became larger as the aircraft IAS increased & altitude increased.

This data isn't 100% yet, more to be done - but I thought I should post this if you too are looking for discrepancies in your pitot/static system.
__________________
Brian Decker
RV-7 (Flying)

Motiviation

...from a post from SuperCubDriver (Germany)

Bizarre Fuel Pressure Readings

I suspect I may have a fuel pressure sending unit getting ready to die, but not sure.

The EI FL-5 fuel computer has been a damned useful instrument, and the prior owner of my airplane really had it dialed in accurately. It is usually within 1/2 gallon of accuracy on everything. I've been cross checking it for 1 year and 100+ hours of flying and it's been stone-axe reliable.

Today I was be-bopping along at 7500' when I get a annunciator and a warning light for pressure. The numbers were all over the place, spiking and bottoming out every second.

The engine was running fine. Changes to the mixture didn't seem to have an effect. I turned on the boost pump and the numbers spiked even harder - bouncing between 30 PSI and then 160 PSI and then 40 PSI, etc...

Turned the boost pump off, watched it for a while. Didn't seem to have any pattern. Sometimes it would stabilize, sometimes it would just run amok.

There was NOTHING else to indicate the airplane had a problem. Everything was working as it should, which is why I suspect maybe the sender is going out?

So I took a video:

In every other respect, the engine ran fine, no issues, noises or anything. When I landed, no smells or fuel stains or spills.

Anyone ever see this before?

RV-14 Empennage inventory question

Kit finally was delivered today. While doing inventory, I found two parts, E-903, that did not have any film on them and had numerous whole that were already dimpled. There was another part in that sub kit that also had some holes dimpled holes. Has anyone else encounters this or did I get a returned part?

10/6/2021.  Issue #5,417. Need a Contract SIC?

From the Daily RV Pic thread...

Check my thinking before I make a mess

Trying to finish up my -9 o-320 FP. The cowling was sent in early 2019 and because of a move and family problems shortly after delivery, my inventory check was not thorough. Not really knowing that much about cowlings, I saw a cowling and checked the box on the inventory. Fast forward a year- trying to install over a FAB, hmm, doesn't fit! Looking closer, tag that is glassed in the corner of cowling says "IO360". So seeing $$$ signs trying to figure out how to ship back to Vans for the correct cowling, I called Vans, tech support told me to cut out the bottom of the cowling and drop in the -6 scoop and glass it in. I'm fixing to make the final mating cuts. Was going to cut each piece within a quarter of an inch of each other then grind a scarf angle on each piece so the scoop fits slightly into the cowling then start glassing them together. Does this seem like the right thing to do? What should I use to make this scarf joint? Thanks in advance!

Pictures of Electric Flap Install

Q: I have been searching this forum and other places to see pictures of the electric flap actuator installed on an RV4, but no luck.

Anybody has any pictures please? Under the floor and on the side wall?

A: Some modification (welding) was necessary to make the RV8 type install in my RV6

CYL #6 CHT Dilemma

I like running LOP and have been playing with injector restrictors to get my GAMI spread as close as possible. My #6 cylinder is always my hottest, regardless of what I've tried. I do NOT want to start cutting for cowl flaps or other mods.

Right now, it seems I have a choice between the "lesser of two evils". With the stock restrictor in #6 (.0280) I have "ok" CHT's in climb with only #6 going above 400 to about 405 in climbout. I'm ok with that. But in cruise, #6 will run around 385-390. A little higher than I want since other CHT's are at or below 360.

When I put a 1/2 size restrictor in the #6 nozzle, my cruise CHT on #6 goes down to around 365 (perfect!). BUT, my climb out CHT gets as high as 421!

So, question is, am I better with cooler #6 in climb? Or better with a cooler #6 in cruise?

Tilt up canopy woes

Had to shim out lateral two rivets on aft canopy frame bar. Had quite a mismatch. Tech support was helpful.

Brake disk wear update

It's been almost 5 years and 800 (hobbs) hours since I installed thicker brake rotors. I measured the thicker rotors at 0.294" when new. Current measurement for the right rotor is 0.284" and 0.281" for the left rotor.

I'm a Happy Camper.

Intergranular corrosion, some real life pix

Been some confusion here and other places. Finally found another old part I was looking for; so, here's some "real life" pix of IG corrosion taken from a Mooney. Wheel well-wing attach bracket and flap hangar IIRC. Many times very hard to detect until the part integrity is severely compromised. Prime, paint (and maintain both); fog. Just sayin'

Other uses for Garmin Smart Glide

Installed and tested the latest G3X software (8.91) with Smart Glide. Short flight but works as advertised.

What are some other uses of Smart Glide beside the intended engine out? My first thought was this will be a tremendous help to my non-flying wife to get close to an airport if she needs to finish the flight. At an Oshkosh presentation, a Garmin manager on the Autonomi program told me he has the same plan for using it to teach his non-flying wife.

During my short test flight, I was about 4000' AGL and pulled the power just enough to get a descent and activated Smart Glide over an airport. It spiraled down over the airport and was roughly set up for a downwind landing to the best wind runway. I took over about 1000'. Might be an emergency use for some version of inadvertent IMC or over an overcast with a VMC only pilot.

So close

7.5 years, waiting for a hangar, ugh!

Hilltop Lakes Annual Fly-In

October 9, 2021

FREE ADMISSION & PARKING -- Come out and see classic, vintage and experimental aircraft!!

-Come eat BBQ lunch with us, $10/plate, food serving starts @ 11am
-One free BBQ plate per aircraft
-Drawings for door prizes
-$1 raffle tickets available for a Radio Shack scanner
-Drawing at 1pm (need not be present to win)

In addition, JAARS Missionary Pilots will bring their Helio Courier aircraft

Airport Info:
0TE4 (private, but all welcome)
Leona VOR 251/13, lat. 31.08N, long. 96.21W
Rwy-17/35, 3000 x 40 paved, elev. 501'
CTAF 122.9, right traffic Rwy 17

Let me know if you have any questions. Hope to see you there!

Mothership...

10/5/2021.  Issue #5,416.
  I started Monday with a 12 minute RV flight in calm conditions.  Coming over the top to join downwind for a TnG I started a descending curve, and just kept it going.  About 2/3rds of the way around I was thinking the track would look pretty swell if I didn't screw it up.  Very few turn out like this - so few that I knew when to stop. ;^)
  Mental gyros properly aligned for the day...
  Need a Contract SIC?

First Flight, John Armstrong -9A ...SeanB post

Witnessed my friend, John Armstrong, lift off for the first time today in his well built -9A. Great prep and all was very well executed. On to Phase 1, but first...time to celebrate! Congrats, John!

Engine install

So today was the engine install. I read all the previous suggestions and it went in with little trouble.
I put the bottom bolts in first and then the top.
I also had to change the support brace prior to releasing all the load onto the fuselage; the old position of the brace was cause a slight warpage of the bottom skin so i moved it forward to just next to the firewall. Much better now.
I think it only took us 1 hour, at the most.

The Snap-on open end box fit three nuts perfectly; like it was designed for this. I had to grind a craftsman sacrificial box end to fit the upper left nut. That one has very little clearance from the push rod to the bolt to slide the wrench on.

Polish Motivation

Here is an early shot. Still needed to paint the tail fairing.

Photo from Unusual Perspective

I just like this photo of my -7 because of where it was taken from. Over the last couple of years, I have been replacing all the metal siding on my hangar. One day, standing high up on the scaffold outside with one of the old panels removed, I was looking in and it occurred to me that this was an unusual view of the plane - and it would not be available in the future - so I grabbed the pic.

First Engine Start: RV-7 / ULPower 520iSA

10/4/2021.  Issue #5,415. Need a Contract SIC?

My RV Weekend

Van's Fuel Tank Sealing video vs my reality

Firstly, the video (easily available on You Tube) is wonderful! No hedging my appreciation for seeing before doing. I watched and rehearsed several times before doing it.

Secondly, just an FYI, I was finishing up project tanks which were completed up to the baffle installation. I attempted to "leak test" just the nose of both tanks before the baffle installation by resting them in the assembly cradles, surrounded by brown craft paper with water up to the vent line. The water was dyed red to make leaks more obvious, but none were found. Not much hydrostatic "head" but better than nothing.  -->

Are we crimping faston connectors wrong?

Had a faston come loose on one of my CHT probes giving slightly wonky readings. Gave all the others a good tug and two more came loose easily.

Flap vs. Step: Fight!

My steel step flange interferes with flap motion and prevents full up travel. Who wins? Would you trim the flap skin or grind away the corner of the step flange?  -->

Paolo's RV-8 in Palo Alto [N679PG]

Hey All,
I'm excited to get going on my RV-8 project. I've been flying my whole life and have my Commercial license with a CFI rating. Building a plane has been a bucket list item for me for many years and last year I finally pulled the trigger.  -->

A puzzle for the collective

I've been having a lot of trouble with airspeed and AoA measurement on my new-to-me RV-10. After a day of hard landings where I just could not get a good flare before hitting the tarmac, we decided to recalibrate the airspeed to the GPS, flying with and against the wind. After doing this, we noted that the AFS 5600 with dual Dynon ADAHRS required an adjustment of -9 KTS on each ADAHRS in order to get the calculated true airspeed and GPS speed to agree (the plane was flying slower than the instruments were suggesting).

Interestingly, the G5 that is on the same pitot static system needed a -6 KTS adjustment as well, although I can't figure out how to do this. Garmin manuals say it is factory calibrated and never wrong.  -->

RV Light Module - A World First  ...VAF advertiser

RV Light Module - A World First - well I could not find any other products like this. Backtrack a bit. We here in SA went to Level 5 lock down late in March. I could not see myself doing nothing during that period and have decided to to start with an idea that I have been rolling around for the last two years or so.  -->

Formation Days Trento

Here is a video of our formation event in Trento/Italy in September 2021.  We had quite some fun.  -->

Escape artist

If you've ever asked yourself: "Self? Can a 5'11" 165 lb male with a size 10.5 foot and a 32" inseam get from the front baggage compartment to the cockpit in an RV-8 with the rudder pedals removed?" The answer is "yes", if properly motivated.

I did not glue the canopy shut when laying up the windscreen fairing! But, I may have underestimated the total strength of the 1/4" fineline tape I used to ensure no resin dripped through the windscreen-canopy gap.... There was barely any adhesive on the windscreen side, but "barely" apparently adds up.  -->

Dangitydarnheck!!!

I'm really mad at myself, and frankly, a little embarrassed, but I know that I always appreciate it when people post mistakes, so that I can be forewarned if I haven't gotten to that section yet, so here goes.

Located the roll bar / windshield frame this weekend; The mounting hardware for this weldment consist of an AN3 & AN4 bolt on each side through the weldment foot, through the F-721 aft canopy deck and as close to the main longerons as humanly possible without actually touching them.  --->

A long time coming, a cross country western adventure

I have been reading the Van's Air Force website for about eight years now, always impressed by those that venture out of their local radius and into unknown places. I was always inspired by Vlad, the teacher that lives in southern California (his name escapes me), and others.

I married my wife three years ago and we had a distance challenge, she lived 735 miles away. As I drove down the freeway on one of the long trips, I thought this is crazy; I have driven 100,000 miles back and forth. I needed a plane and to finish my private pilot's license. I pulled up Barnstormers and found a sexy little RV-4.

I started flight training in my home town and tailwheel training in her town. I was making great progress. Then COVID hit. My tailwheel instructor was 83, she stopped training. At the same time, my private pilot training that I was taking on a military base came to a screeching halt as they shut down the flying club. Nine months later, I started my training again. Between trips, winter weather, and instructor availability, three more months passed and I took my exam passing with a 98, and passing my check ride the next week, the first week in February of this year.  -->

10/1/2021.  Issue #5,414.
  Wishing you and yours a happy safe and RV-filled weekend.
  Need a Contract SIC?
 

You Want Motivation? You got it!

The 'Daily RV Pic' thread is getting traction as one of the better threads in some time.  I think this is going to provide much needed motivation.

RV 10 Stock Tire Wear

Why are the stock tires asymmetrical with that weak bulge on the outside of the tire? I have seen older threads that mention this condition described below.

I understand a little bit of camber, but when the wheel is off the ground, the camber/toe angle seems a bit much, since after 120 hrs both sides (not the tread) show cord, and needed replacement. The initial landing is taken on the outside of the tread, and there is no way to adjust suspension on the 10, except to go with symmetrical tires like the GY Flight II or Flight III. At least you can flip these.

Plenum Update ...motodave

After a TON of work of making and re-making the plug for my Plenum I glassed it with the initial 2 layers of 8oz & Soric (more around intakes) and was able to remove (and save my hard earned plug) the plenum last night! Feels great to have this off the mold:

New Advertiser: HP Aircraft, Inc.

Our latest product is short wingtips for Vans Aircraft RV-4, RV-6, RV-7, and RV-8 airplanes. These wingtips are the shortest practical wingtip for those airplanes. Our testing shows that at moderate altitudes (below about 8000 ft MSL) they are actually 3+ MPH faster than flat cutoff tips. They are made of durable epoxy/fiberglass and supplied in gray primer ready for painting in your finish color.

These wingtips were designed by aeronautics PhD Steve Smith to be the least draggy way to end the RV wing. At the 2021 Reno Air Races they increased the lap speeds for Bob Mills' Rocket Six by at least 3 MPH over his flat cutoff tips. And at moderate altitudes those flat tips increased his speed by a couple MPH over the stock Vans "bat wing" tips.

[ed. The ad lives on the Previous Day's News page (link at the bottom).  v/r,dr]

Q: Need to add serial line

I'd like to add a serial input line to my 430W. Is there a way to remove the connector from the backplate so it can drop down to where I can open it up and insert a pin?

When I remove the unit and look at the backplate from the front, I see a screw on each side of each connector. If I remove the screw on each side of the appropriate connector, will the connector come free from the backplate?

A: Yes if you remove the two screws then you can remove the connector from the backing plate. Before you do that I would caution you that is probably the easy part. I haven't tried this, but it may be quite difficult to get it back together. It's all going to depend on how the harness was made. I attached a pic mine. You can see the little u shaped tapped retention clips which the screws you are seeing thread into. As soon as you remove the screws those are going to fall off. Then depending on how the harness is secured you will need to cut the ties to be able to get access to the connector shell to add the wire. Then you have to put it all back together.

Some people plan ahead when they build the harness and some extra outputs are built into the harness but coiled up behind the panel. You should check for this before removing the screws.

Good luck.

October Wallpaper ...Ed Hicks pic

Current Scoreboard

9/30/2021.  Issue #5,413. Need a Contract SIC?

The Daily RV Pic Thread

Let's motivate those still building (or thinking about building). The world's greatest hobby in pictures!

Submit away!  I made it a sticky.

CPI safety wire.

I was looking at the CPI crank trigger setup and saw that two of the bolts have safety wires, and two don't:

Notice that the bolts holding it to the case have safety wires, but the bolts holding the hall effect pickup to the mount (Allen) aren't wired. Why is that? If either of those back out the fan will quit turning.

What am I missing?

Delivering an aircraft for sale

Hi everyone,
Looking for some advice here. I may have a buyer for my -9A, and he may want me to deliver it to him near Calgary (I am near Ottawa). I've done this route once before - I would to it over 3 days, probably about 15 hours of flying time. He, of course, will cover my enroute expenses, return commercial flight, fuel etc. What I'm wondering is how much would be typically deemed reasonable or expected to add to the purchase price for the inconvenience of delivering it? Is there a general rule of thumb in this regard?
Thanks for any thoughts!
p.s. I'm keeping the possibility open of building an -8 in the future, depending on how things develop.
__________________
Phil
RV9A (SB)

(Fastener) Torque. Not a debate

If this comes off as a little preachy, sorry. There's been some threads here where some don't understand/want to debate:

Torque
Importance of
Proper methods
Application differences
whatever

Here's a couple of examples:  --->

The 'ol Table and Sawhorse Method

I found two smaller tables and a sawhorse to be a good way to go. Having one very flat 3' X 6' to 8' long to do most of your work on and then a smaller table to keep your band saw, drill press, vice, etc on. I found the table long enough to set the entire tail cone on with a portion of it hanging over and being supported by the sawhorse.

Slick Magneto major failure

In the process of my annual I noticed the timing of my left and only magneto had drifted 5+ degrees. This magneto was purchased from a VAF'r and had been removed from a new engine with only a few hours on it. It now has accumulated around 240 hours total hours. It should be noted that the mag drop was becoming a bit more than usual, around 150 rpm. The other ignition is an electroair, which has little if any drop when the mag is switched off. The Slick 6383 magneto is a retard breaker mag, with a slick start module. The plug wires were replaced with the mag as were the plugs replaced with fine wire REM38S. This is a IO540 D4A5. Below are the photos. I also attached a photo of the a cap and rotor from a 1000 hour mag for comparison. As you can see, the coil has overheated evidenced by the bubbling of the exterior. The rotor actually has a hole eroded completely through.

The only thing I can come up with for this type of damage, it that the slick start module is continuously running due to a key switch failure. I have not tested the switch yet to confirm.

Any thoughts on the failure mode

On Kitplanes.com

While there are always exceptions, the bread and butter of Experimental aviation has always been sport aircraft. Like sports cars, sport aircraft tend to be small, fast, fun and a lot of times, aerobatic. Either that or minimalist and cheap. All are predominantly two seaters. Meanwhile, the certified side has focused primarily on serious traveling machines and/or highly utilitarian workhorses with usually four or more seats. For decades the two markets rarely crossed over or competed with each other.  --->

RV10 Tail Kit - Almost finished - need to sell (Irving, TX)

It's 95% finished. Everything is done except riveting the final skins on the empennage. The skins are drilled, dimpled and deburred. The rudder, elevators and horizontal stabilizer are 100% done.

I'm including all my plane construction specific tools. A complete initial tool kit, plus I've added an air riveter, additional air drills, a DRDT dimpler on a custom table, and a custom rolling table for the shop.

List on all this about $6,000. But I just need to move it. So I'm a flexible seller. It's in Bedford here in the DFW area.

With lead times from Van's being what they are, this should be a great opportunity.

Reply w/ PM in the forum or mike.strube AT gmail.com
__________________
Mike Strube
RV-10 Builder #41000
Irving, TX

Lycoming Box Foam Lift Surprise

Hahaha...The title is crafted for future searches
The post is mainly for future builders so they won't get surprised like I did.

So here's something I didn't see coming. The box that my IO-360 came in is too wide for a shop crane. The crane is from Harbor Freight and not wide enough to allow the engine to be lifted out of the box
I'll have to come up with another way to lift it. I'm assuming that lifting the engine other than straight up is verboten.

The other surprise is that foam
It looks like I'll have to remove most of that nasty stuff to free the engine for lifting.

9/29/2021.  Issue #5,412.
  Finally some storms and wet here in the DFW area.  I grabbed the laptop Tue afternoon, drove over to a TexMex place, ordered a margarita and finished putting together the Wednesday edition while watching dark clouds roll in.  Beat staring at the wall in the office.  Working on Mt. Email (don't give up on me Jerry - I'll call eventually).
  Hoping to take the RV for a spin here in a day or two with lower temps all around if the universe allows.  The nicer temps are welcome.
  Need a Contract SIC?
 

NMPA Mountain Flying Course ...rvanstory

Flew to KABQ for the New Mexico Pilots Association's Mountain Flying Course. While there, also flew over to Double Eagle for the 2021 LOEFI (Land of Enchantment Fly In). Met some GREAT folks and had a great time flying the mountains! John Lorenz was my CFI for the flight. He's an AWESOME instructor as well as a genuinely nice man.

Success... and Failure...

The good news: after borrowing angle wrenches from Dave Pohl, relieving material from the opening edge and stretching the floor sheet metal a bit, I gained enough swinging room to remove the fitting. The threads in the leg looked ok, if not a bit gummy.

Exceeded recommended RPM with cold oil

In the POH for the legacy RV-12 the POH mentions a minimum oil temp of 120 degrees along with a max RPM.

Example : "Taxi RPM - 1800-2500 RPM until oil temp reaches
120* F (50* C)"

Why is this? What specific damage can occur?

Why? : A buddy of mine was taxiing with oil temp around 100 degrees and got bogged down in grass...He knew better, but advanced the throttle well beyond the RPM recommendation. He says the engine now makes unpleasant noises he's never heard before, and is running rough. It has around 570 hours on it.

What could have been compromised? (We fear big $$$)

Who could help him diagnose it? (We need a Rotax expert. )

Thanks

First Flights Reported on Mother

Accessing wing wires to cockpit

Hello!

Installing ADSB this weekend (Echo UAT) and I am putting it on a wing inspection panel and I have to run the wires into the cockpit. I've got them to the fuselage port but am having a hard time figuring out how to best access them on the cabin side. There is a gray panel that won't budge when I remove all the screws and the lower panel is riveted to the floor. Do I have to remove the seat to access the panel below? Not intamitely familiar with the 10 yet and figured I'd ask before unnecessarily tearing everything apart.

Bench Grinder....6" Enough?

Hi,

Will any 6" bench grinder work for this project or is 8" a better fit?

912iS - Hobbs vs. ENGINE Time

I'm pretty sure this is a 912iS only item...

What's the difference between Hobbs vs. "ENGINE" time in the EMS? When I first energized my HDX system, the Hobbs showed zero, naturally, but there is a timer labeled "ENGINE", which showed 0.5 hours. I naturally assumed this was from the factory break-in period. Slowly, Hobbs has overtaken the ENGINE time. With over 100 hours on the engine, the Hobbs has gained about 45 minutes over the ENGING timer - now 112.5 on the Hobbs vs. 112.3 on ENGINE time. See attached screenshot of my EMS screen.

I've checked the Rotax manuals, floated this question to Dynon and on the Rotax Owner's forum, but no good answers, so, I'm reaching out to you iS engine guys with two questions:

1. Does anyone know the real meaning of ENGINE time?
2. How do Hobbs vs. ENGINE times compare on your aircraft?

New Panel: replacement metal question

Hello all, I'm gearing up for a refresh of my panel and wanted to see what others have done when replacing or covering the side metal pieces of a -8 panel. I've got a new center panel section and I'm working through the new layup design but I also want to change the side panel sections. What is the best way to either reskin or cover these sections? I've attached a photo of the section I'm attempting to replace.

Welcome Brian

Ordered Emp kit RV-14A
I ordered my empennage kit today for my RV-14A. 6 months is the listed wait, so I'm sure I'll be bugging a few of you as I wait and work on my workshop, tools, and practice.

Thanks all for the advise and general helpfulness so far, I know I'll need it more!

Brian

RV-14A Emp kit ordered 9/27/21
PA-28-236
KIWS

Gust Locks -- Redux

I was describing my solution to this problem to my friends at lunch last week, and they just couldn't grasp how you could use a beer can koozie as a rudder/elevator/aileron gust lock. So I had to show them...and show off the new paint too

9/28/2021.  Issue #5,411.  Need a Contract SIC?

Thailand needs another RV ...Chris Pratt

I think there's at least one RV flying in Thailand, and there's hopefully one more coming. Last Thursday I had the pleasure of meeting a 737 pilot for the Thailand subsidiary of Lion Air (yeah, that Lion Air). He was in Dallas with his wife taking some R&R ... He was interested in finding out more about what is involved in building an EAB aircraft, etc. etc.

So, after boring him to death showing all my build manuals, photos, blueprints, etc., I invited him to fly with me to see how he likes an RV. By the time we got back, he had an RV grin.

For me it was pure fun to encourage someone new to our experimental world to get involved and to highlight the RV family of aircraft. As he was leaving, I gave him a list of websites to look at starting with vansairforce.net and, of course, he received one of my custom RV hats - reserved for those who fly with me. He's headed home this week to explore the rules in Thailand for EAB and promises to get back to me with what he finds.

Happy flying, my new Thai friend.  --->

David Paule -3B Update

RV-4 How to rig the aircraft to begin measuring rigging ...fixnflyguy PIREP

I built my -4 and did the best I could do with strings,plumb bobs ,ect. to make it as close to perfect as I could. While the drawings and construction manual have basic symmetry instructions, no 2 RV-4's are identical, and variations are not uncommon. I "leveled" mine by jacking at the firewall cross-member just under each lower engine mount to get the wheels off the ground, and used a level on the cockpit side rails in both lateral and longitudinal direction, supporting the tail to the level position. When everything is measured a zillion times and seemingly spot on, the rear spar attach hole is clamped and drilled and the wing incidence is set. it cant easily be changed later without oversizing, eccentrics or other means. I installed electric aileron trim during my build for fuel burn reasons, but found during phase one, I always had a heavy right wing. After careful inspection a zillion more times, I found my L/H aileron outboard hinge (steel U-shape) was "low" by nearly an 1/8" inch which creates a flap like condition on the left wing. Wala, remove and drill up new hinge bracket..poof, heavy wing gone. The newer RV kits have the holes pre-drilled and less prone to this occurrence. I would start by checking for this scenareo, then follow the VANS "heavy wing" dialogue.

HFS's IO-540 Baffles

Here is what I have

Spark Plug Wire Fell Off In Flight

This is weird....

Three years ago, I was diagnosing a rough running engine and replaced all eight spark plug caps thinking, at the time, maybe the 5 ohm resistor in one or more of the caps was damaged. The rubber boot gets manhandled when pulled from the spark plug and my thinking was the internal resister could get damaged. I replaced the rubber caps with NGK 90 Degree Elbow (LB05F) 8051. This spark plug cap is rigid phenolic and my thinking was the internal resistor wouldn't get damaged easily.

Engine has been happy for over 300 hours until today. Flew in a lot of turbulence this morning and engine began running rough. I shut off one ignition at a time in flight and it showed both ignitions working, but one very rough. Returned to home base and removed top cowling to find top left rear spark plug wire not attached to the spark plug.

I pushed the sparkplug cap back on with no ratcheting sound and cap pulled right off. There is a spring circlip type wire in the cap that engages with the exposed screw thread on the sparkplug. When pushing the cap on the circlip wire "ratchets" down the sparkplug threads and becomes engaged in the trough of the last thread to hold the cap in place. I thought this was a very well proven design.

So, what happened? The circlip wire apparently is harder than the threads on the sparkplug and vibration most have caused the wire to wear a flat against all the exposed threads allowing the cap to lose its grip and come off. See attached photo...

Now I'm researching the correct NGK rubber sparkplug cap for 912ULS. I think the rubber cap does two things = prevents water ingress, and also holds the cap tightly to the porcelain of the sparkplug to prevent movement.

It's always something Gilda...

Thanks VAF! ...cdeggz

After eyeing -10's and dreaming of building on for years, I finally got my pilots license and bought one last month (ok I cheated).

I wanted to thank some people that really helped me out along the way. I would have been lost without their help:

John for selling his beautiful RV-10
Bob (BobTurner) for guiding me with incredible insight along the long path to finding the right -10, and providing transition training in California.
Larry (lr172) from Chicago for completing a pre-buy on a -10 for me in Wisconsin
Les for providing a pre-buy inspection for me in Texas
Josh (SPX) for offering to ferry the plane for me and providing insight on the purchase process

...and the rest of the VAF community for answering all my newbie questions. My grin is glued on. See you guys in the sky.

New GT-50 From Flight Data Systems

Flight Data Systems is pleased to announce the availability of our updated GT-50
All the features of our Existing GT-50

Plus These New Features:
High Current USB Charge / Data port
Improved Display with icons for each function
Captures and time tags all extreme G events in memory
Password protected Max and Min G saved in memory
Field updatable software
Higher resolution G-meter
Wider range temperature probe -40F to 255F
Connect to a laptop for data download or as data logger
Same connector and pinout as the original GT-50

Jslow 9A Status

Inventory done starting the left wing main spar.

Milestone: Panel HOT ...John S

Got panel fired up still a few error messages, but seems to be software issues. I am declaring wiring (mostly) done.

9/27/2021.  Issue #5,410.  Need a Contract SIC?

My RV Weekend ...many

Bonneville Salt Flats

Flat, smooth, hard as concrete! Nearby Wendover has gas and a little museum. Even the C123 from the movie Conair!

RV-8 and the Mount of Olympus ...Steve Rush

Friday was a nice day in the PNW, possibly the last of the year, so I bailed on work to go flying. After lunch at Forks, we came home via Mt. Olympus in the Olympic National Forrest. It was a nice day, but very sad to see so little snow up there and the receding glaciers, must be an age thing.

Camera Trick

Many of you have probably discovered the surprisingly good fibre-optic cameras that WiFi broadcast to iPads and other devices, available onAmazon. I came up with a way to greatly improve their usefulness and accuracy for inspecting cylinders, valves, and even intake and exhaust ports. I used some safety wire, shrink wrap, and 24 ga tefzel wire to rig it up as pictured below. If you click on the photo in the middle, it should take you to a more detailed video, and the bottom pic is an example of using it even to photograph the spark plug hole into which it was inserted. Works like a charm with incredible control,

Tank Vent PIREP ...Greg N.

In my 9A I use the rocket style double loop on the outboard tanks with a bottom skin Bonaco 45-degree cut vent entrance, works great with no siphon. I use flow-through venting from the outboards to the inboards.

Little adjustments you've made as you age

The recent thread about having to wear readers when flying made me think of another adjustment I recently made due to age. I noticed that my landings weren't as soft as they used to be, and I wasn't sure why. Then, I noticed that, as I flared, I was losing sight of the runway over the panel just before touchdown. I had heard that the spine compresses by about an inch as a person ages. I checked my height and I have shrunk by about that amount.

My Flightline seat cushions came with a 1" thick booster which I tried. What do you know, I never lost sight of the runway, and my landings immediately improved. It seems obvious that if you're losing sight of the runway, you should raise your seat, but gradual changes can go unnoticed.

Another adjustment to my plane was to install Allan Nimmo's EZ Exit Bar. Best money I've ever spent on an assessory.

Beach landing at Blokhus Beach, Denmark.

Confused by lemo jack wiring

I plan to fit Lemo jacks as well as the normal GA phone and mic jacks but I've found 3 different wiring diagrams, one from Bose, one from Garmin and one from Vans. They differ in what you do with the shields for the wires between the GA jacks and the lemo jack.

Bose has you connect the shields to audio ground at the GA jacks - image from the Bose install manual.

Garmin has you run the lemo shield wires (and all other wires) all the way back to the the audio panel - image from the GMA 245 manual.

Vans don't have any shields at all on the wires between the GA jacks and the lemo jack - image from the RV-14 wiring diagram.

Does it matter which one I use?

Hangar rash on my elevator

My hangar mate and I were trying to load my -6A onto a lift yesterday and sadly the elevator's trailing edge collided with a corner of the T hangar wall.... twice.

The damage looks mostly cosmetic save for a small crack about 1-2mm deep just next to one of the ribs. He applied a squeezing tool to mostly even out the deformity.

My hangar mate is an A&P, just finished building his -8 and recently flew it for the first time. He seemed to think it would be safe to fly but I should keep a close eye on it, and it may need to be stop drilled. The accident was my fault - it's my plane and I should have been paying more attention - but he very generously offered to help build a new elevator. I may take him up on it but in the meantime I want to be able to fly. Wanted to check with you all to see if you also think it's safe to take up.

I also might try to get a salvage part or something. There is an unfinished -6 tail and wing set local in Washington for sale on Barnstormers... I might try to buy the elevator from that guy and see if it fits mine.

Also wondering if I could/should apply a patch to reinforce it, or maybe weld it or something? I'm not a builder, open to suggestions.

9/24/2021.  Issue #5,409.
  Wishing you and yours a happy, safe and RV-filled weekend.
  Need a Contract SIC?
 

Battle of RVs ...skylor

For those that missed it, here is the link to the video of Sunday's Reno Sport Class Medallion race which features an epic battle between an RV-8 and an RV-S8 (Super-8) for the win along with 2 RV-8's and an RV-4 battling for 5th, 6th and 7th. The race also included an F1 Rocket (4th) and a Lancair 320 (3rd):

Gun Drilled Gear - Leading Update ...fr0gpil0t

I wanted to follow up and thank you everyone for their help - so far I think I have been successful.

Cleaned the fitting and gear leg careful, applied loctite 567 and put the fitting in hand tight. Then using a crowsfoot wrench and a medium length handle, tuned it smoothly just under 1.5 turns to the exact position, careful not to back off the fitting. Left the fitting 48 hours+ before adding brake fluid.

I think the difference between previous attempts was going a little tighter and not backing off the fitting to clock it. No leaks so far.

Canopy Frame Tweeking Jigs ...Schott Hersha

The round pieces were pulleys from a modified band saw that I inherited. I rebuilt the band saw with new appropriately sized pulleys to bring down the speed to what I wanted. They worked perfectly to help get that frame into a shape that I could live with. From an entry/exit, operational, and appearance standpoint I prefer a sliding canopy, but it is a challenge to build.

Baffling Rubber to Cowling...PIREPs

(Ralph Inkster)  3 examples which 2 are dogs (that will be groomed soon)
The top cowl is off my current 6A. Note the smudge marks where the baffle contacts the fiberglass. The black puffies are where air is leaking, not many, these areas could use a bit of silicone applied to the rubbers to get a better seal. The 6A front inlet shots show how the rubber material was notched to go around curves and not buckle the sealing areas.

The baffles on the floor are off a 9A that I'm rebuilding, the engine just came back from Aerosport Power fresh, I wouldn't dare screw those baffles on this nice clean engine! - there is so many problems with these baffles that I am going to start from scratch and fabricate new ones...

The green baffles are on a future 6 rebuild project, I doubt those baffles did anything but sit on top of the engine & look ugly.

Both the old 9A (on floor) & 6 (green) baffles show signs that the vertical baffle walls were trimmed too close to the cowling. The rubbers were either pinched or just folded over at 90 degrees or more resulting in next to non existent sealing.
Attached Thumbnails

(fixnflyguy)  While at my hangar last eve, I snapped a couple pics of my ramps with cowl on. Although mine's a -4, the -6 should be similar. When I built my cowls, I bonded the cheesy fiberglass ramps in place, then fully closed out the outboard side and smoothed it up. The inboard side (not visible) is left open adjacent to the flywheel. The baffle behind the ring gear pretty well seals up that area. You can see in the pics, the ramp sealing to the cylinder side baffles, and the lower cowl seal comes over the top of the cylinder front baffle.

Identify This Boost Pump

Inspecting an RV-8 IO-360...  I haven't seen this pump used in an RV and have no experience with it. Anyone recognize this pump and can offer an educated opinion on its suitability. The area circled in yellow also appears to be an open seal drain barb. Tomorrow I'll be investigating further... just trying to get a head start. Thanks!

9/23/2021.  Issue #5,408.  Need a Contract SIC?
 

First RV-8A ride, a decades long dream ...EricTheRV8er

It was love at first sight when I first saw an RV-8A 20 years ago. It was the plane that inspired me to complete my PPL. I am very thankful to finally be in a position to have one in the hangar!

This is my first ride in our plane. I flew it home the next day. What a joy and a dream come true!

RV-10 Update ...LCampbell

Nothing like taking a one-hour job, and turning into 3 days, just for fun...

I decided to go with the PH Aviation flap motor as an upgrade. Ironically, I just learned yesterday, Van's mentioned something about an upgraded flap motor at Oshkosh last month. Oh well, onward and upward. : )  --->

Milestone: First Power Up ...PilotjohnS 9A

So I rolled the plane out for first power up. Installed the battery. Pulled all the breakers so none of the expensive stuff would turn on.

Turned on the master. all is good.\
hit the start key, heard starter relay click (no engine installed, so no actual starter.
Powered up the G5 by activating circuit breaker: all good
powered up PFD (Garmin 460): came on and found satelite
Powered up MFD: Came on with error message of no GPS antenna connected (Config setting is wrong)
Powered up GTX375 : error message Transponder fault WHAT?
Powered up Com1 Error message: Mike stuck on.
Tried taxi lights: all good
Position lights: all good
Strobes: tail only
Trim: Not working
Flaps: works great

Tried Transponder again: All good, but no database installed

Troubleshooting is starting: found stuck mike problem right away: I used very thin Cat7 cable to wire the stick switches to the panel.(I originally did this because bundle was getting tight in grommets; turns out regular wire was not much bigger) The wire, when bundled, had several 40 ohms "shorts". This was low enough resistance for Garmin to think mike is keyed. Changed out cable with real wire and resistance check is good.

working off the rest of the squawks.

Milestone: Wings Arrive ...jslow2 9A

Terry Edwards Panel

Thanks to Aerotronics for building this panel for me. I did a 3D CAD assembly model in Solidworks, sent them the files and they did the rest. I'm still wrestling with the wiring and cabling through the carrythrough spar and in the fuselage tunnel, so the panel is not yet mounted in the airplane. Thanks also to all those builders whose ideas for my panel I borrowed from theirs.

Canopy Latch for Tip-Up ...cgeyman

9/22/2021.  Issue #5,407.
  The nicest METAR I've seen here in DFW in a good long while.  Wind shift 0618 local due to frontal passage.  100*F Monday....88* Tuesday.  Hello fall.
  Need a Contract SIC?
 

Engine hung! ...datsclark

I don't have a lot of updates on here, but i hit a big milestone this weekend! Engine hung!

Baffling rubber to cowling interface

Recent purchase RV6A 0360 carburetor, running high CHT's.

Critical observation reveals a difficult task of evaluating where air is leaking.  I've compared the plans picture to the rubber install and it appears identical.  However I cannot find the upper cowling inner pictures.

There are two distinct areas, the ramp at inlet and then inward of those eyebrows the contour changes.
I've been looking for pictures of other cowls on vaf and cannot find postings.

I have the replacement rubber, but I do not want to install it if the contours are incorrect on the cowling.

I could use some help please.

Thoughts on reinforcement plates!?? Discussion

So as I am assembling my elevators, I noticed the area behind where the elevator control horn doesn't have a reinforcement plate. Thoughts/discussion on making some reinforcement plates and putting them here to help the load? Now I'm no engineer but it seems like that may be a decent spot for extra reinforcement to prevent future issues. All comments, thoughts welcome...

Is our RV-8A a little slow...?

Hi folks!

First post here from a freshly minted RV-8A owner. Absolutely love the RV and am really excited to finally be a part of the RV community. I hate for my first post to be speed related, as that's probably a cliche on here, but would like any advice on what things to look for first.

My amateur hunch is the prop has at least something to do with it. It's a fixed pitch Sensenich, and I have to pull the throttle back to keep from exceeding the 2600rpm limit. That's taking off about 3-4" of available manifold pressure (from 22" to 18").

I've included some pics with data from the G3X and a photo of a second test flight data.

RV-8A, O-360 approx 200 SMOH, Sensenich FP prop, test flights done at 1500lbs.

So I guess my questions are:

1. Are these speeds unusually slow for this engine/prop combo?

2. Would switching to a prop that can run 2700rpm make the plane fly closer to book speeds being able to utilize 70-75% HP.

3. Would switching to a C/S prop improve cruise speeds? I read all the time FP and C/S cruise speeds are close... but every fast RV I've seen has C/S prop.

Any info or feedback appreciated. Thanks!

Catching up to a cold front

Interesting flight home today - I left Reno (actually Carson City KCXP) and climbed up to 17,000 for the flight home to Texas, enjoying a rather nice tailwind from the cold front that had come through Reno the day before - right up until I caught up to the leading edge and passed through it in New Mexico.

Take a look at this flighaware track from today.  You can see quite clearly by looking at my groundspeed just where I got into the leading edge of the front about 2/3 of the way home, and then flew out of it.

I saw ~35 knots tail component for the first half of the flight - nice enough that my trip home, just over 1000 nautical, took 6.0 hours start to stop and burned only 39 gallons.

Rigid Fuel Lines- What is too short?

Sincere question looking for legitimate answer. What constitutes "too short" for rigid fuel lines? I'm aware of the variables (relative rigidity of structure between the two connecting points. Linear versus planar versus compound curve, etc) and consequences (related strain = stress in line and fittings.)

Background: I mocked up my wing/flop tube connection to the fuel selector. Too long, too many bends, and too many bulkheads to pass through to make in one piece. Of course, I didn't think about until after I'd made the line; another waste of effort and potential material. Story of my life. The line is ~6.4 inches and almost a single plane curve; pic attached. I thought about forming a steam loop in it (still might) but I'm comfortable with the relative rigidity of the structure, direction of forces/deflection and resultant strain in the line. Anyone is welcome to convince me otherwise.

I didn't find anything in my ancient copy of AC65-9A. I like to follow codes, standards, etc, when able. Any references that can be passed along? It would be appreciated.

9/21/2021.  Issue #5,406. Need a Contract SIC?

It Can Be Done ...

Bottom Wing Skin Rivets...Dan Newman PIREP

Solid rivet options
It's not easy, but it is possible to do these with solid rivets.

I cut the flanges on the reinforcement angles back at 45 deg, since those bits of the flange aren't doing anything useful from a structural point of view ("adding lightness").

I was then able to just get the toe of a small bucking bar in between the angle's flange and the rivet shank. Took me a few tries, including drill-outs, but it did work ok.

If you don't want to use solid rivets, an alternative to the MK319BS is a Cherrymax CR-3214. These are a blind fastener equivalent to the NAS1097 "oops" rivets.

For the Grandkids...Dvalcik

About to pull the trigger

Hey Everyone,

So I've convinced the wife it would be a good idea for us to build a -10. Perhaps not the biggest hurdle in the process of building one, but probably up there! However, I'm in the military and am scheduled to move down to Oklahoma this coming spring. As such, given the 6 mo lead time for the Empennage Kit on the Van's website, we probably won't place the order for a few months so that we have a month or so to get settled in the new place before the kit arrives.

That being said, probably going to buy the practice kits soon, just so we can practice our riveting skills between now and then. Any other tasks or activities that would be useful to take care of in the mean time (also considering that we'll be packing everything up and moving in about 6 months)?

I realize it's a bit early to be worrying about some of these things, but I'm very interested in adding the Show Planes' cowling and composite tailcone skin. Looking at the forums and other videos online, I can find a reasonable number of examples of the cowling, but other than N104AL I haven't seen the composite tailcone mod on a completed or in-progress aircraft. Curious of anyone has any experience/thoughts/insight on the composite tailcone. I realize it is a bit superfluous, and I love the -10 as is, but to my eye that slightly adjusted profile really appeals to me.

Anyways, thanks for any input you may have to the above questions/considerations.

-Nick

More from the 'My RV Weekend' Thread

Where used?

When upside down the other day this screw plinked on the canopy. When I turned upright it landed in my lap. I have looked and cannot find an empty hole, and I cannot find a similar screw.

Any ideas where this particular screw is used?

9/20/2021.  Issue #5,405.
  I took some time over the weekend to add some more ideas and suggestions to the 'How to Minimize the Chances of Getting Scammed' document that lives on the front page here and in the stickies at the top of the classified section.  Added instructions on how to record a video chat with a potential buyer, and moved the part about using Stein as a middleman in high dollar avionics sales up near the top.  I can't stress that one enough.  There is some real scum online.  Buyer beware and all, cuz we're a target.
  Hope you had a nice weekend.
  Need a Contract SIC?

My RV Weekend

Fuel pressure sender broken, which replacement?

Hello

Yesterday at run up, the fuel pressure alarm goes on ... to high fuel pressure. Ok, no flying.
I measured 65 Ohm with no pressure (unit removed).
Compared to the oil pressure sender, there I read about 6 Ohm with no pressure. So this unit is gone!
Ground of the case, the pressure manifold and the one for the engine are fine.

Type is a 0-80 PSI, single post, VDO, made in Germany. Hooked up to a Advanced 3400s EFIS/EM

On ACS I found many oil pressure senders that would fit, but no one mention fuel pressure!?

Can I just take an oil pressure sender of the correct range and it is fine for FUEL also?

Thanks a lot!

Status Report ...cgeyman

Canopy brackets.  Also putting in front top skin access panels

Bottom wing skin rivets

Anybody run into an clearance issue between the aileron hinge service bulletin angle and a rivet that attaches the bottom skin? Did I miss a step somewhere?
What is the best way to overcome the interference?

9/17/2021.  Issue #5,404.
  Thanks again for helping make this site the non-political, non-lawyerball, non-in-your-face back and forth civilized RV-only least crazy spot in the Milky Way.  The posting rules work and I'm so grateful for the oasis of sanity that this neighborhood is.  I'll keep trying as hard as I can to bring you a good product.
  And happy birthday to our family's RV-6 Flash, who turns 19 today.  She's a great airplane, from a great company, surrounded by great friends.  We are a lucky bunch us RV folk.
  Wishing you and yours a happy, safe and RV-filled weekend.
  Need a Contract SIC?

My Early RV Grin ...papamike

4,312 days. After nearly 12 years I got my airworthiness certificate for N174PM!  My good friend Mel was thorough, as I knew he would be.

Canceled mid Atlantic RV Fly in Carrol County Airport 2021

...note from Steve Koziol

...our chapter had to cancel the Mid Atlantic Gathering of RVs for this weekend scheduled for September 18 with a rain date of September 19 due to logistical issues..... Thanks Steve Koziol KDMW Carroll County Airport, Westminster Maryland.

First Flights Added to Mothership

GMU 22 / GTP 59 Related

Thanks for the quick reply Chris. Glad to hear it's been trouble free. Getting close to finishing left wing. Wouldn't mind your feed back on my pitot/AOA mount. Mount is in approx. OEM location. I've twisted the power lines and plan on running them as far aft as possible in the aft most rib setup hole. I enlarged them slightly as per Van's.
I plan on going through the lightening hole at the I/B flap bracket and then back to the set up holes.

Sika Primer on Inside ...SeanB

What about applying the Sika Primer to the inside of the canopy (if I understand your need correctly)? Makes a nice Targa look. Obscures view of the roll bar.

Bad oil analysis results ...Lemos

I received bad news in an email from Blackstone. Looks like my engine is making metal. How bad are these values?

Aluminum 18 ppm. Iron 77 ppm. Copper 30 ppm. Nickel 11 ppm. Everything else is OK.

Blackstone notes: we have found high levels of iron and nickel compared to averages. Check the compressions, and check the oil filter. Resample in ten hours.

What am I looking at here? Engine overhaul? Is there a market for an airplane with an engine with these kind of problems?

TYP on Plans ...georgemohr

On the plans for the 14, I see some references to "TYP". I understand this to mean "typical", and is used when the specifics of this feature might differ build to build.

If that is right, I don't understand the usage below. This is calling out some match drilling, which should not have variability, right? If I'm way off, please set me straight!

9/16/2021.  Issue #5,403.
  Minor life milestone: Logged my 600th hour on motion in the Phenom sim yesterday - spread over 443 days of 'part time' side hustle work (the RV-6 looks at me longingly from a distance wondering where I am).  I know, big guy, I miss you too.
  Need a Contract SIC?

Europe FFI Meeting 2021 ...Luke in Trento, Italy

9/15/2021.  Issue #5,402.
  A rare Monday morning free (worked the weekend) started with a still windsock and a half hour RV flight.  Mental gyros re-aligned.  The picture just oozes 'go fly', me thinks - made it my phone wallpaper <g>.
  Need a Contract SIC?

9/14/2021.  Issue #5,401. Need a Contract SIC?

My RV Weekend ...various

9/13/2021.  Issue #5,400. Need a Contract SIC?

My RV Weekend ...various

9/10-12/2021.  Issue #5,399. Need a Contract SIC?

Never forget.

9/9/2021.  Issue #5,398. Need a Contract SIC?

My RV Weekend ...Thermos

My wonderful wife and building partner got her first flight in the airplane she helped to build!

6 years down the track and getting closer...Joeyo68 RV-7

While searching VAF for info, as we all do during our build, I found my thread from when I started on this journey 6 years ago.  Little bit of progress update.  Tail is complete, wings are done Fuselage is built, electrical fitout is almost complete. Canopy is done. It's up on its gear.  Hung the engine a few weeks ago am finishing off the cowling. Long story with the cowl, but I got a 320 mount and cowl, and I am putting in an IO-360-B1B, with a GT 3 bladed ground adjustable prop.  So, busy doing the cut 'n' shut with the scoop to make it fit. Really starting to look like an aeroplane now.  Been really lucky, have met some great guys, clocking up some hours flying 7's. Working towards getting this thing flying within the next year.  Running out of rivets to bang!

RV-7 Paul and Kacy Status Update

And now, the last thing we did with the Sam James stuff was to fit the engine air intake and air filter. I first fit up the entire thing with the standard mounting plate that Sam James provides. In order to attach this to the 2.5" round flange that's on the SDS throttle body, you need an adapter. I ended up trying a few things. I called up SDS and got a set of machined adapter plates they use for a different motor. This is a flat plate with 4 holes that would bolt to the rear of the filter housing, and it had a 2.5" flange on it. The bolt holes were a little wide, and the outlet of the Sam James "transit duct" that's inside of the filter housing is way larger than 2.5".

Next I tried a cheap MAF adapter from amazon. This has 8 bolt holes in a universal pattern and a 3" outlet flange. This actually bolted up very nicely and was the right size to match up to the James transition duct. The downsides were 1) It was heavy, and 2) it made the intake very long. After the 3" outlet I had to use a 3" to 2.5" silicone coupler and by the time everything was installed, I only had less than 1" of gap between the inlet ring and the filter housing. I would have kept this option, until Mona at Sam James called me back and said they make a housing with a built-in flange.

This was similar to the option above, but it saved a lot of weight and ended up being 1/2" shorter overall. Along with this, trimming the silicone coupler as short as possible, plus a little trimming on the front side of the housing, there's now plenty of gap for wiggle at startup and shutdown. 
--->

Garmin G3X Touch Smart Glide Feature Release - Software 8.91 Available 9/8/2021

Good Afternoon,

G3X Touch software version 8.91 was posted to the Software Download Area today. Among several background improvements and new features which are detailed below, we are happy to include Garmin Smart Glide in this software revision. Revision S of the G3X Touch Pilot's Guide will be available shortly, which will include a comprehensive overview of the operation of this feature, starting on page 421.  --->

Scheduled Ramp Check for Me! ...rockwoodrv9

So, I may have gotten myself into more than I bargained for.

I just flew my plane from Idaho to Michigan after phase 1 was flown off there. I want to get my Repairman Certificate so I sent an email to the local FSDO. I got a nice reply saying he would come to my hangar to meet me and check my plane and my logs - pictures. We scheduled a time and he said - maybe he could do a Ramp Check while he was there.

Well, I didnt bargain for that but I suppose it wont be a big deal since he will be checking out my plane anyway.

I am still a student pilot and have no experience with this so any hints will be appreciated!

I also want to thank Mel for sending me the form and a list of what to have ready for my Repairman Certificate.

Goatflieg Status Report

Another Magnificent Month of Milestones! Here's the obligatory teaser photo... not really a teaser, more of a giveaway:

Uncommanded flap retraction

Has anyone had this problem?  Significant troubleshooting, but unable to solve problem. RV9A with PH Aviation actuator position wired to G3X touch. Disconnected wire and flaps do not retract. Changed switch and problem remains. Seems to be an electrical issue, although there is a heavier duty actuator available from PH Aviation.  Has anyone had similar problem, or have any suggestions?

9/8/2021.  Issue #5,397. Need a Contract SIC?
 

From the Mothership

Plenum Evolution...DanH

It obviously leaks (see below). But it is very decorative

First version of mine, circa 2009, attached the span above the forward case to a formed flange using vertical screws into nutplates. Couple hundred hours and the loads fatigued the formed flange enough to start breaking it from the ends where load was concentrated.

So I revised the lid by adding a 90 degree flange with four horizontal screws in shear. The flange stiffened the edge, and the assembly is really stiff when screwed to the front bulkhead, which is bracketed to the case spine.

This iteration has seen 230 knots (yes, I was careless), meaning 150 lbs/sq ft with a Cp over 0.85, or nearly 500 lbs without failure.

Radio range issues

We are having a problem that I wanted to post here to see if anybody here has a valuable suggestion. In a new RV-10 with a professional audio harness (Approach Fast Stack), we are having problem with receive range on our radios. We have a GMA245 audio panel, a Dynon Com (Trig Transceiver) and a GTN650. This has been an ongoing problem that didn't appear at first, but became noticeable around 10-15 hours from new.

On a test the other day, the plane left here. From our base station radio with an antenna on the top of the hangar, we had great reception for the first couple of miles. The further he got away, the more weak and staticy the plane received, although the transmit was still loud and clear. When the plane was 15 miles away, he could not receive the base station at all, and he was still loud and clear receiving at the base station. In summary, his receive range is very short, but transmit seems to be good, or at least better. This problem is with both radios.

We have verified that we have good coax from both radios. to their respective antennas, which are the RAMI AV-17's, and the coax run down opposite sides of the plane to their respective antennas. Both antennas were new when installed and bought together. We removed some paint where the screws attach the antenna to the airplane, and used lock washers under the nuts after removing primer from where the nuts tighten down, so we know we have a good ground (the antennas are under the pilot and copilot seats). We have tested with each radio powered down and the problem is still with the powered radio, so it isn't cross-talk. We have verified, and added, a good ground from the audio panel to the airframe. We have tried with both pilot and copilot headset alone, with an without the rear headsets, and have tried other known good headsets. We have replaced the Dynon transceiver 2 or 3 times, thinking it was specific to that radio, with no change. The intercom works just fine all the way around. We have swapped with another GMA245 audio panel and there was no change, so it's not a bad audio panel.

The only thing we can think of that is left to check is to replace one or both of the COM antennas. I have never had a bad RAMI bent whip antenna, certainly not out of the box, and the likelihood of two at the same time on the same plane seems even more unlikely, unless they were both from the same batch that happened to be a bad batch, but I don't know how we would change that.

As a side note, this plane has the full EFII system with the buss manager. We are going to test reception range on the ground with the engine on and off soon to see if the engine could be causing any disruption.

Any thoughts?

My RV Weekend ...more submits

RV-8 Status ...N804RV (I think I missed this earlier)

Ready to drill horizontal stab onto upper longerons. Waiting for tech advisor visit before doing the deed!

Kitplanes Article ...Larry Larson

Let me guess. You have a beautiful Sikaflexed canopy and those pesky aluminum skirts aren't even close to fitting. Now you're thinking about a one-piece fiberglass skirt. What? Are you nuts? Fiberglass canopy skirt? One piece? OMG! Yes, it can be done. It's actually easy. My canopy was a tad proud at the rear. Too much junk in the trunk, I guess. That meant those aluminum skirt pieces were not going to conform to the shape without an English wheel and skills I do not possess. Fiberglass, however, will conform to any shape. In fact, that's the beauty. So, here's how I did it. Let's start with the basics.

9/7/2021.  Issue #5,396. Need a Contract SIC?

Airworthiness issued ...Fred Leeper RV-8

One month shy of 13 years, I received my Airworthiness Certificate from the ICT FSDO. Now, prepping for the first flight!

Forward nutplate question on page 10-20 ...RV-14

On figure 1 page 10-20 there is a a foward nutplate that does not appear to be called out for riveting. According to the instructions, you only rivet five horizontal nutplates on the aft end of F01418 longeron. Is there a reason the sixth one is not riveted in the step. It seems like it should be... I must be missing something.

Panel Installed in my -7 ...mfleming

Just installed this all Garmin panel in my -7. Built the harness myself
GDU 460 primary display
GDU 470 MFD #1
GMC 507 auto pilot controller
GNX 375 GPS navigator
GTR 200B Comm
GDU 470 MFD#2

My RV Weekend....various

Panel...RicoB

Just got it done! Loving the dynon system. Lots to learn but it will be great

20 Year Anniversary N66AP

The saying that time flies when one is having fun holds true! Or, was the saying one has fun flying while time goes by?...

While the first flight was on September 9th, 2001, I chose to call today the 20th anniversary as we'll be out of town on the 9th.

Some of the best memories I have are connected to this plane, whether it be the wonderful friendships I've made over the years or the spectacular majesty of our country I've seen through the canopy. And of course the warmth of the "friends" I've gotten to know here on VAF. I lost count long ago the number of unique passengers I've taken up, but it is probably around 200.

The Hobbs has 1752 hours, and my logbook shows it has a total of 2,238 landings. It has taken me to a majority of states, although not all 48 yet...

The RV grin does not fade, although there do seem to be more wrinkles now!

For those still building - the headaches, worries, expense, frustration, etc. will all be worth it!

Rest in Peace Jan Bussell ...Pat Hatch post

I'm sorry to have to pass this on. From Jan's widow, Joyce Bussell, Jan passed away recently from leukemia. I know a lot of you received your RV checkout from Jan in Okeechobee, FL. Jan was a big guy. I remember many years ago he showed up in my hangar in Vero Beach because he wanted to see if he would fit in an RV-6 that he was thinking of acquiring. He ended up getting two, a -6 and a -6A. He may have built one, I don't remember now, it was a long time ago. Joyce wanted me to mention that Jan is going to be cremated and his ashes spread over the runway at Okeechobee. Funeral arrangements were made at Buxton & Bass in Okeechobee.

Rudder Control Locks ...various

Spark plug question

Anyone know what that buildup is and what causes it. Mag on those bottom plugs and plasma on top plugs. Its hard like epoxy.

Powder Coated Steps ...flion PIREP

Definitely nicer and more durable than painting. They were done after initial fitting and the shaft inside the fuselage left bare so the thickness of the coating would not interfere with sliding them into the fuselage. That part was greased and shows no sign of corrosion after 8 years. I'm still in construction and have probably used them more than I would while flying to step into the fuselage and such. After coating, I trimmed pieces of tread grip tape to fit on top as shown in the picture. I wish I had done this on the RV-6A.

RV-3 Fiberglass Tips PIREP ...RWoodard

\I've now seen fiberglass tips attached via 2 different methods. I think the more common method is to attach an aluminum flange to the aluminum part and then make the fiberglass part meet flush against the aluminum part (in your case, the rudder). If using this method, you may want to add a shim under the flange so that the fiberglass part can be a bit thicker than the rudder skin and still sit flush.

The other option is to just tuck the fiberglass part under the edge of the rudder skin and accept that the part won't fit exactly flush because the thickness of the aluminum skin will sit on top the fiberglass tip. I recently messed with my vertical stabilizer fiberglass tip and realized that the original builder used this technique. I have to admit that the thickness of the skin protruding on top the fiberglass piece wasn't (isn't) objectionable at all and is actually hardly noticeable. Using this technique, the fiberglass piece just needs to extend far enough into the vertical stabilizer to allow for fasteners.

No matter which technique you choose... an innie or an outie, I'd suggest installing nutplates for ease of access/maintenance in the future. My rudder bottom has a tail light in it and the top of the vertical stab has a strobe. I just recently replaced the strobe and I'm happy that I didn't have to mess up the paint on the VS to replace the strobe.

Here's an example where the fiberglass piece sits inside the Vertical Stabilizer. There are nutplates installed inside the fiberglass piece and the VS skin is dimpled to accept normal flathead (flush) screws.

PIREP: Missing screws - oil cooler to head RV7

\This is likely not a new thing but for a lot of buyers-not-builders a heads-up.
At 196 hrs I changed the oil and was to begin my FWF inspection. Events limited me to the change and recowled for 1 hr flight. Cowl removed and found two screws mins in 1 hr flight time, one fell from lower cowl at removal.

I question my observation skills not finding one missing just an hour before, so having found one, would conclude that once loose, these screws can back out really fast!

As Walt and Vic always say "put-a-wrench-on-it" to check the torque!! I was not wise to these particular fasteners, but should have been. Shame face applied . .

So - I will reinstall, torque and recheck every 10 hours to be sure they are tight and follow up with additional information.

Allowable flap twist

Well, my first (left) flap turned out great - as I riveted the bottom skin along the spar I checked the angles of the flap brackets as I went. They started out true and stayed that way.

However, the right flap is another story. It started out true but after the first round of rivets (every 10th one) it was about 0.2 degrees out of true. I checked after each round of rivets and it ended up 0.5 degrees out of true.

It seems an odd way of checking for no twist - I deburred the aft edges of the flap hinge brackets as a pair - did I induce a half a degree difference?

If there was a half a degree out of true on one flap - is this a lot? I'm hoping not.

Once the trailing edges are done etc I can use a laser to check them but can't think of a way at this stage that it would be helpful.

Petit Jean 2021 is ON!

The 2021 RV Gathering at Petit Jean Mountain is ON ON ON! October 14-17! That's great news for all you RV shut-ins! We just received the final permit from the state parks (3 months in the making) and we are good to go for October 15-17, with an early arrival option for Thursday the 14th. We usually do all the final cutting and trimming and setup on Wednesday and put the final touches on the campground on Thursday but now that has turned into the early arrival day! .... and a lot of early fun on the Mountain!

Fuselage Update, Chapter 23...PilotjohnS

Final assembly is continuing. Have installed instrument panel permanently in plane. Last picture below was just after riveting with few wires connected.

If you look closely, the engine mount is visible; it is on permanently; a big step, but relatively easy. I wanted to install the engine mount before the panel so it was easier to get to the engine mount bolts, but I don't think it mattered much.

Since that time I have wired everything up from plane to black boxes except engine temp sensors; those I will wait on until engine is installed.

I have all the antennas connected to the radio trays, so technically I wont emit smoke if I turn the radios on; I am prepping to light up the instruments before the engine goes in.

RV-8 and the "At Last, A Nice Day" flight ...ArlingtonRV

Last Saturday 8/28/21 was the first chance I had to fly in a month. Between excessive heat, excessive smoke, and insufficient cloud/tree clearance, it was the first chance I got.

9/6/2021  Labor Day (USA).
  Closed today.  Hope you're enjoying a long weekend with your RV plane and/or project. 
  v/r,dr

9/3/2021.  Issue #5,395.
  Brad from Garmin is passing through DFW Friday (3rd) and he's stopping at my home field (52F) for a couple of hours so he and I can go grab some BBQ at Hard Eight.  I guess I'm typing this for the locals that didn't feel like standing 20 people deep at the booth at OSH, and would like to bounce a question off the factory rep.  Between bites that is.  My hangar 1130 Friday if you want to hang out with the cool kids (them) and one poser (me).
  Wishing you and yours a happy, safe and RV-filled weekend.
  Need a Contract SIC?
 

Ready for its closeup ...Bsquared RV-14A

N144BL.  Finished it last November but had it painted recently

Brake issue

Lately, I've heard a clicking sound coming from my left brake, when taxiing out to the runway. If I apply slight pressure to that brake, the clicking sound goes away. Once I let up, the clicking sound comes back. It only happens above 10 MPH. The aircraft is a 9A with an O-320 engine and constant speed prop. Original brakes that came from Vans. Approximately 80 hours on them so far. Any ideas what causes this issue and what is the solution?
Thank you, in advance, for your help.

Rear Window Overhang of Roll-bar F-01431D Shim? ...RV-14

OK, doing a "Take Deux" of the rear window after a gut wrenching and
expensive crack. Don't ask......

Now, trying to figure out what distance should the aft window overhang the Roll-bar Shims - F-01431D, before I drill again. I don't have a plane to look at, and I am not sure how far the fwd canopy overlaps aft.

Right now I have it where the channel created by the shim is not covered, and it is even all along the bar.

Anyone want to send me a pix or tell me what works?

TIA!

IPC conclusions

Did an IPC yesterday after not flying for a while. Main takeaways:

1. I was really rusty with respect to the required hand-eye coordination. Hand flying an RV in IMC/under the hood is a really perishable skill.

2. I change throttle settings too often.

3. I always considered synthetic vision sort of video-game-ish, but it came "free" on my GRT Horizon EX upgrade so obviously I started using it. Turns out it's surprisingly useful for real world IFR work! For example, although obviously it's not the only thing to watch, the flight path marker is actually giving you a huge amount of useful info via a very simple representation.

4. When Job One is keeping the dirty side down, and the pointy end pointed in the right direction, an EFIS is better than a six-pack. Much easier to see and synthesize the required info once you get used to it.

5. I should be doing more IPCs.

GeoffH's Scratch-built Dynon Panel

Elevator Foam Rib Question...jcirelli Reply

Q: ...do I sand the blocks down to the black line on the paper template or to the point where the black line is completely removed?

A: I clamped a piece of sandpaper and angle to the benchtop in order to keep the rib square while sanding. It's worked very well...

9/2/2021.  Issue #5,394. Need a Contract SIC?

My RV Weekend ...Chris Moon 14A

Pilots N Paws rescue flight for 4 dogs, leg 2 from Hickory, NC to Manassas, VA. Always a good feeling to get these pups to safety.

It's officially an airplane...David Lewis

I got my airworthiness certificate on Monday. Dave Prizio (on the right) flew in from Chino to do the inspection. Thank you sir. And thank you to Doug and this site for all the information shared that got me through the project. Now looking forward to transition training and getting started with Phase 1.

Handle above RV10 window

Found a pair of thick stainless cabinet handle to install above the rear windows for balancing while climbing on top of the wing. Would love to hear from those that have been through this installation. The interior ceiling liner is installed and I do not want to remove it.

The large washer is a Home Depot magnet that I thought should go in the cabin, the small washer would go between the handle and fuselage top. Proseal in the drilled hole.

Any suggestions? Thank you.

Rough fields and RV8s

Hello:
I am new to this cool site and if my question has already been posed, then my apologies and please point me in the right direction. I am an older guy just now getting back into flying after a long hiatus and the RV8 has really caught my eye, especially with the bigger engines and the ability to do 200 mph at altitude has really got my interest.

One question I have is how robust is the landing gear on an RV8 (or other Vans as well)? I understand that the tires are only about 4 or 5 inches in diameter and I have been entertaining the idea of taking trips to places like the Alvord desert (in Southeastern Oregon) and other such spots where no airport exists.

It may be a vague question, but how robust is the gear on an RV like the -8?

Thanks for all of the insight!

cgeyman's 9A Status

More tail strobe wiring

Got the wheel off ...rvanstory update

9/1/2021.  Issue #5,393. Need a Contract SIC?

Catmandu's Weekend

Well, not my RV, but a friend's new to him. My first almost Coast to Coast cross country in a little airplane:

Left the Bay Area noonish on Saturday, had to take the southern route due to smoke from a fire that's about to eat my house. Landed on Maryland's Eastern Shore just after sunset Sunday.

2+3 three-hour-ish legs split by an overnight in Albuquerque. VFR all the way, some time on O2 (system failed or I would have done more), always left myself an out when dealing with convection. Sometimes flight following, sometimes just 121.5 and some sweet tunes (the cockpit dancing videos will not be shared, you're welcome).

M'lady said "I can't believe you finished the trip from Albuquerque in one day!" to which I said "You wake up on one coast and fly eight hours to the other to be home for dinner all the time." Perspective, I guess.

Newly Reported First Flights on the Mothership

Red dot on tire

Q: Now I need a word from the experts, I have watched a couple of utube videos on changing the main gear tires on an RV 6A, you might have guessed there are two ways to position the red dot and the valve stem, one says align the red dot with the valve stem, the other says to put the red dot 180 degrees from the valve stem, the logic here being the red dot is the heavy point on the tire, put the extra weight of the valve stem 180 degrees from the heavy spot on the tire, and presto the tire is balanced, however it seems most mechanics disagree with this procedure as does Vans construction manual.

A: The red dot is supposed to be the lightest spot on the tire, that's why you align it with the valve stem.

Weekend Oil Change, But ...Flying_Canuck

All I did this weekend was an oil and filter change but on Thursday I completed the return from my second East Coast excursion.

We departed Aug 15 from CYQF, Red Deer, Alberta and 29.5 hours, 5 legs totaling 13.2 hours flight time later we landed at CYSU, Summerside, Prince Edward Island. Fuel stops in Yorkton, SK; Dryden, ON; Hearst, ON (overnight); and La Tuque, QC. Flight was trouble free (anyone who recalls my 2019 excursion - this one was all kinds of trouble), had strong tailwinds all the way and only one challenging landing in Dryden.

I burned a tank of 100LL giving sightseeing tours for my family on Aug 22/23, such a beautiful place to fly.

On Aug 25 we headed home. 5 primary legs with one short reposition, 15.2 hours air time and 31 hours elapsed. Stops were similar to the way out. La Tuque, QC; Kapuskasing, ON; Sioux Lookout, ON; Dryden, ON; Yorkton, SK. We ended up sleeping in a courtesy car in Dryden as there were no hotel rooms. Decent tailwinds coming west on the second day. Again trouble free (apart from sleeping in a car). I even got to utilize my freshly obtained VFR-Over The Top rating coming out of Dryden - flying 4500' over an overcast layer.

The rest of my family flew out commercially but my autistic daughter refused to get onto the flight home. They just set out to return home this morning by road in a vehicle I purchased over there yesterday. Their 5 - 10 hour drives will stop very close to my stops between 3 hour legs.

In all my RV9A gave me nearly 32 hours (air time) of flawless performance. It's a great way to travel.

September Wallpaper Calendar

The RV-1, RV-3 and RV-4 prototypes.  Ed Hicks photo.